Canadian swimmer Aurelie Rivard has won a silver medal at the Paralympic Games in Paris.
Rivard, who was born with an underdeveloped left hand, fell just short of a third consecutive gold medal in the women’s S10 100-metre freestyle and took silver after the 28-year-old from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., was out-touched in a duel to the wall with Frenchwoman Emeline Pierre, to the roars of host-country fans at La Defense Arena.
Fourth at the turn, Rivard’s time of one minute .82 seconds was off her world record of 58.14 seconds set three years ago in Tokyo, and just over three tenths of a second back of Pierre.
“I should have done a much faster race time-wise, so that’s where I’m a lot more disappointed than the medal,” Rivard said. “I really died in the last 15 metres.
“It’s hard to be sad while being here with the crowd. I also love to see that people are just as excited for Paralympic sport as they were for the Olympics, especially in France.
“It’s never going to be a negative thing having so much noise, so much people.”
Rivard collected her 12th career Paralympic medal and second in Paris after a 50-metre freestyle bronze to open the meet.
“That’s pretty cool,” Rivard said. “My first Paralympics were 12 years ago. I never thought that I’d reach that amount of medals. I can’t be disappointed about that.”
Rivard is also scheduled to race the 400-metre freestyle in Paris.
