Team Canada has now won three gold medals at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. In athletics, Greg Stewart of Victoria, British Columbia won the gold medal in the men’s shot put, and in swimming, Aurelie Rivard of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec won the gold medal in the women’s 400 metre freestyle swimming competition.
Stewart won the gold medal with a throw of 16.75 metres. Nikita Prokhorov of the Russian Paralympic Committee won the silver medal with a throw of 16.29 metres. Joshua Cinnamo of the United States won the bronze medal with a throw of 15.9 metres. Stewart, who is a remarkable 7’2″, and has one arm, earned a medal by 1.1 metres over Kerwin Noemdo of South Africa, who had a fourth place throw of 15.65 metres.
Rivard, who has one hand, won the gold medal with a world record time of 4:24.08. Bianka Pap of Hungary won the silver medal with a time of 4:29.83. Oliwia Jablonska of Poland won the bronze medal with a time of 4:33.20. Rivard earned a podium by 20.42 seconds over Zara Mullooly of Great Britain, who had a fourth place time of 4:44.50. Rivard broke her own world record, which was previously set at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships in Cairns, Australia, when Rivard swam to a time of 4:29.27.
The Canadian Paralympic team won a third medal on Wednesday. In the men’s 100 metre wheelchair racing, Brent Lakatos of Dorval, Quebec won the silver medal with a time of 14.55 seconds. Pongsakorn Paeyo of Thailand won the gold medal with a time of 14.20 seconds. Adbulrahman Alqurashi of Saudi Arabia won the bronze medal with a time of 14.76 seconds. Lakatos earned a medal by 0.86 seconds over Ariosvaldo Fernandes da Silva of Brazil, who had a fourth place time of 15.41 seconds.
Canada now has 16 medals at the 2020 Paralympic Games (three gold medals, eight silver medals, and five bronze medals). They are in 17th place in the overall medal standings.
