Paralympic newsletter: Canada wins another gold, plus Wednesday’s medal chances | CBC Sports

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Canada captured two more medals today in Paris, including a gold by wheelchair racer Cody Fournie in the men’s T51 200 metres. Swimmer Katie Cosgriffe added a bronze in the women’s S10 100m butterfly.

The 35-year-old Fournie, a quadriplegic since the age of 11, played for the national wheelchair rugby team before switching to the track a few years ago. Today’s 200m final was his first Paralympic medal race.

Fournie won a silver in the 100m at this year’s world championships in Japan and will return for that event on Friday in Paris.

“The 200 has always been the most difficult for me, so it’s something [my coach and I] have worked on the hardest,” Fournie said. “I executed [the race] perfectly.”

Canada had a handful of other medal hopes on the track today, but none of them panned out. Marissa Papaconstantinou finished fourth in the women’s T64 200m final, Sheriauna Haase was also fourth in the women’s T47 100m, Zach Gingras placed fifth in the men’s T38 400m, and Bianca Borgella went down with an apparent hamstring injury in the women’s T13 100m but still managed to get up and finish the race.

Through six days of competition, Canada’s tally is up to 13 medals — two gold, four silver and seven bronze. Here’s the full medal table. 

Other key Canadian results:

* The Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team earned the chance to play for a medal by defeating the Netherlands 79-67 in the quarterfinals. Co-flagbearer Pat Anderson had a monster game, scoring 20 points while grabbing 20 rebounds and dishing out five assists. Canada will face the reigning Paralympic and world champion United States in the semifinals on Thursday. The winner goes on to play for the gold while the loser heads to the bronze game.

* Canada’s women’s goalball team was eliminated from medal contention with a 5-1 loss to Israel in the quarterfinals. Canada will play Japan for fifth place on Wednesday at 4:45 a.m. ET.

Here’s a roundup of today’s top Canadian performances.

WATCH | Fournie earns Canada’s 2nd gold medal:

Canadian medal chances coming up on Day 7

Here are Wednesday’s top contenders in chronological order of their finals:

Road cycling: Keely Shaw in the women’s C4 individual time trial at 2:14 a.m. ET. Shaw took bronze in this event at the 2022 and ’23 world championships and was fourth at the 2021 Paralympics. She’s vying for her second medal of these Games after grabbing a bronze in track cycling. Joining Shaw in this event is Kate O’Brien, who also took bronze on the velodrome last week but is not as strong on the road as Shaw.

Track and field: Charlotte Bolton in the women’s discus throw F41 final at 4 a.m. ET. The 21-year-old is already competing in her second Paralympics after placing sixth in both the discus and shot put in 2021 in Tokyo. Bolton earned her first international discus victory at a Grand Prix event in Paris in June and placed 10th in the Paralympic shot put last week.

Track and field: Greg Stewart in the men’s shot put F46 final at 4:05 a.m. ET. The 7-foot-2 thrower retired from the sport after winning gold with a Paralympic-record toss at the 2021 Games. But he returned to take silver at this year’s world championships, putting Stewart back in the running for his second Paralympic medal. The 38-year-old used to be coached by Dylan Armstrong, the 2008 Olympic shot put bronze medallist who also works with Olympic hammer throw champ Ethan Katzberg.

Road cycling: Nathan Clement in the men’s T1-2 individual time trial at 4:19 a.m. ET. Clement competed at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio as a swimmer before switching to road cycling a few years later. Smart move: he won a pair of silvers in his world-championships debut in 2022, then added two more medals at the 2023 worlds — including a time-trial gold.

Road cycling: Alexandre Hayward in the men’s C3 individual time trial at 8:25 a.m. ET. Hayward is going for his second medal of the Games after matching Shaw and O’Brien with a bronze in the velodrome last week. He finished sixth in the road time trial at last year’s world championships and won a World Cup gold in Australia this year. Canada initially had two contenders in this event, but 2016 Paralympic bronze medallist Mike Sametz withdrew from the Games on Sunday due to an injury sustained in a training crash earlier in the week.

Swimming: Nicholas Bennett in the men’s 200m individual medley SM14 final at 11:42 a.m. ET. Assuming he advances through the morning heats, which shouldn’t be a problem, Bennett will have a great chance to win his second gold and third overall medal of the Games. The 20-year-old athlete with autism is the world-record holder and reigning world champion for his category in this event. Bennett won the 100m breaststroke on Monday for Canada’s first gold in Paris and took silver in the 200m freestyle on Saturday.

Swimming: Tess Routliffe in the women’s 100m freestyle S7 final at 1:28 p.m. ET. A silver medallist in the 200m individual medley on Saturday, Routliffe should contend for the podium again after taking bronze in this event at last year’s world championships. She’ll be joined in the morning heats by Sabrina Duchesne and Shelby Newkirk. The latter has won a pair of world titles in the 100m backstroke and finished fourth in the 50m freestyle last week.

Other Canadians to watch on Wednesday

* The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team faces Germany in the quarterfinals at 3:30 p.m. ET. Canada finished second in its group with a 2-1 record, while Germany was third in the other group at 1-2. Canadian star Kady Dandeneau ranks third in tournament scoring with 23.7 points per game and is also in the top seven in both rebounds (8.0) and assists (7.3).

* The second-ranked mixed pairs BC4 boccia team of Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu plays Ukraine in the quarterfinals at 4:30 a.m. ET, with the winner advancing to the semis at 12:50 p.m. ET. The medal games are on Thursday. Levine and Ciobanu defeated China and Croatia today to finish a perfect 2-0 in group play. Ukraine went 1-1 to place second in its group.

WATCH | Setting up Day 7 on CBC Sports’ Rise and Stream:

Gold medallist Greg Stewart returns in men’s F46 shot put on Day 7 of Paralympics

On Day 7, Paralympic champion Greg Stewart returns to the shot put circle after retiring post Tokyo 2020. Plus, bronze medallists Kate O’Brien and Keely Shaw aim for another medal in the women’s C4 time trial, and world champion Nathan Clement looks to capture gold in the men’s T1-2 individual time trial. Watch it all on CBC Gem.

More on the Paralympics

If you’re wondering what BC4, SM14 and other such event designations mean, they’re disability classifications. Here’s a handy guide to how they work in each sport. Classification can be a controversial aspect of the Paralympics, with some athletes even accused of “class doping.” Read more about the fraught system in this story by CBC Sports’ Myles Dichter. 

If you missed Tuesday’s newsletter, here’s our primer on the Paralympics with some fun facts about the Canadian team.

For more stories, video and live streams, visit CBC Sports’ Paris 2024 website and Paris 2024 app.

How to watch the Paralympics

Go here to choose the live events you want to watch and find replays and highlights. See the full streaming schedule here.

You can also catch the action in Paris via three daily live shows on the CBC TV network, CBC Gem and CBC Sports’ Paris 2024 website and app. There’s Petro-Canada Paris Prime, hosted by Scott Russell, at 2 p.m. ET; Toyota Paralympic Games Primetime, hosted by Russell and Stef Reid, at 8 p.m. in your local time zone; and Canadian Tire Paralympics Tonight, hosted by Devin Heroux and Roseline Filion, at 11:30 p.m. local.

Digital coverage will also include daily episodes of Rise and Stream, highlighting the must-see events and Canadians to follow, and Hot Takes, featuring interviews with athletes and analysts. Both shows are available on the Paris 2024 site and on CBC Sports’ YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and X. Here’s more on CBC’s Paralympics coverage.