Canada’s Katie Cosgriffe will leave her first Paralympic Games with some hardware.
The 18-year-old from Burlington, Ont., claimed bronze in the women’s S10 100-metre butterfly on Tuesday at Paris La Défense Arena.
Cosgriffe got off to a speedy start and led the race in the early going, but she was caught and passed by the halfway point, where she touched third.
Yet the Canadian was able to hold tight despite challenges from a pair of Australians and she kept her position to capture the bronze medal.
Cosgriffe, who has a neurological disorder known as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, will also swim the 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley in Paris.
It’s been a rapid rise for the teen, who was only classified into Para swimming in April 2023. A few months later, she was the youngest member of Team Canada at the Para swimming world championships in England, where she competed in two events but did not reach the podium.
Now, rather quickly, she has her first major international medal.
Elsewhere in the pool, fellow Canadian Alexander Elliot placed eighth in the men’s S10 100m butterfly, Sebastian Massabie was sixth in the men’s S4 200m freestyle and Mary Jibb slotted fifth in the women’s S9 100m backstroke.
Massabie, a 19-year-old Paralympic rookie, was fourth-fastest in qualifying. He placed fifth in the 100m free final on Friday.
Six of Canada’s 13 medals at the Paris Paralympics have been won in the pool.
Nicholas Bennett won Canada’s first gold medal of these Games in the men’s SB14 100m breaststroke after earning silver in the 200m freestyle, while Aurélie Rivard claimed silver in the women’s S10 100m free and bronze in the 50m free. Tess Routliffe earned silver in the women’s 200m individual medley.
Sprinter Borgella injured
Sprinting in her first career Paralympic final, Canada’s Bianca Borgella was nearly unable to finish.
Borgella, the 21-year-old Ottawa native, pulled up and fell down around 40 metres into her women’s T13 100m final on Tuesday at the Stade de France.
The Canadian, who won bronze in the event for visually impaired athletes at the 2023 world championships, grabbed at her left hamstring before crashing onto the track.
Up ahead, Azerbaijan’s Lamiya Valiyeva won gold in a world-record time of 11.76 seconds, while Brazil’s Rayane Soares da Silva also broke the previous mark but settled for silver at 11.78 seconds. Ireland’s Orla Comerford took bronze at 11.94 seconds.
Earlier, Canadian sprinter Marissa Papaconstantinou narrowly missed out on her second career Paralympic medal.
The 24-year-old Toronto native placed fourth in the women’s T64 200-metre final with a time of 27.30 seconds/
Dutch sprinter Kimberly Alkemade won gold in a Paralympic-record time of 25.42 seconds, while fellow Netherlands native Marlene van Gansewinkel scored silver in 26.14 seconds while Germany’s Irmgard Bensusan bagged bronze at 26.77 seconds.
Papaconstantinou won bronze in the 100m in Tokyo and added world-championship bronze medals in the 200 and 100 last summer, also in Paris.
Toronto teen Sheriauna Haase, making her Paralympic debut, also placed fourth in the women’s T47 100m event.
The 17-year-old clocked a time of 12.53 seconds in her first career Paralympic final.
Ecuador’s Kiara Rodriguez won gold at 12.04 seconds, while American Brittni Mason grabbed silver (12.10) and New Zealand’s Anna Grimaldi earned bronze (12.20).
In the men’s T38 400 metres, Zachary Gingras of Markham, Ont., placed fifth despite a season-best time of 50.63 seconds.
The 23-year-old took bronze in the event during his Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
World-record holder Jaydin Blackwell of the U.S. matched his mark to win gold at 48.49 seconds, while fellow American Ryan Medrano took silver (49.74) and Colombia’s Juan Alejandro Campas Sanchez rounded out the podium with bronze (49.92).
Anderson leads Canada to wheelchair basketball semis
Wheelchair basketball legend Pat Anderson led Canada’s men’s team into the semifinals in a monumental 79-67 win over the Netherlands.
The three-time Paralympic champion, who played all 40 minutes, delivered a dominant performance with a game-high 20 points and 20 rebounds at Bercy Arena.
“I wasn’t really expecting to play 40 minutes that game, so my head was spinning a little bit towards the end,” Anderson said. “I just went to talk to my family, and they’re super excited. We’re in a semi. I came back in 2017 [after a five-year break] just with the hope to make it to the medal rounds with this group, and it’s taken us seven long years to get there.
“So this is a huge hurdle that we cleared, and it’s very exciting.”
Nikola Goncin and Tyler Miller also reached double digits in scoring with 16 and 10 points, respectively. Eight Canadian players scored six points or more.
The semifinals are set for Thursday, with Canada’s opponent to be determined by the winner of a game between France and the U.S.
“France is a great team and they’re at home. That first night for us was amazing playing them. And the U.S. are the best team of a generation, so it’ll be a tough match either way,” said veteran Canadian Bo Hedges.
The Canadians haven’t won a Paralympic title since the London Games in 2012. They finished second in their preliminary group with a 2-1 record after beating the Germans on Monday.
Anderson served as one of Canada’s flag-bearers in the opening ceremony.
Canada’s women’s goalball team loses quarterfinal
The Canadian women’s goalball squad saw its Paris medal hopes come to an end with a 5-1 loss to Israel at South Paris Arena.
Two-time world champion Amy Burk found the back of the net for Canada, but the team was unable to contain Israeli co-flag-bearer Lihi Ben David, who scored four of her team’s goals.
“It’s raw. It hurts,” said Canada’s Meghan Mahon. “We worked really hard over the last three years to make it here and to show that we can podium with the best of them.
“Today was clearly not our day.”
Canada opened the tournament strong with a 10-0 rout of France before falling 2-1 to Japan and playing South Korea to a scoreless draw. They will compete in a fifth-place playoff on Wednesday against an opponent still to be determined.
“We can let this hurt right now, not getting the result that we came here for, but we still have a job to do, and it’s going to be to come out tomorrow and treat that game like the gold-medal game,” Mahon said.
Other Canadian results:
- Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu opened the BC4 mixed pairs boccia tournament with an 8-5 win over China followed by a 6-4 victory over Croatia in Pool B. The Canadian duo advanced to the quarterfinals, where it’ll face Ukraine on Wednesday at 4:30 a.m. ET.
- Equestrian Roberta Sheffield and horse Fairuza advanced to the individual freestyle Grade II event after finishing sixth in the individual event. Fellow equestrians Austen Burns, riding Happy Feet 3, and Jody Schloss, riding El Colorado, finished 12th and 17th, respectively, in the individual Grade I event. They failed to qualify for the individual freestyle event by finishing outside the top eight.
- Ryan Rousell lost in the second repechage round of the men’s sabre Category A wheelchair fencing tournament against Italy’s Edoardo Giordan.
- Fellow wheelchair fencer Trinity Lowthian came up one point short in her opening repechage round match against Brazil’s Monic Santos, falling 15-14.