The Canadian national anthem played at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games for the first time on Monday as Para swimmer Nicholas Bennett raced to gold. Two more athletes secured podiums with Leanne Taylor and Austin Smeenk each earning bronze. The Canadian Paralympic Team now holds 11 medals through five days of competition.
Nicholas Bennett Wins Canada's First Gold Medal
Nicholas Bennett was golden in the pool, standing atop the podium in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB14. Third at the turn, Bennett powered to gold in the last 50m, finishing in 1:03.98. The victory gives Canada its first gold medal in Paris; it is also Bennett’s first Paralympic gold. He won a silver medal earlier in the Games. The 20-year-old is competing at his second Paralympic Games.
“Being this young and just being able to throw down, it’s just amazing,” he said. “But this is a long road, so hopefully there’s more to come.”
“My success is my sister’s success and my family,” added Bennett, who is coached by his sister Haley Bennett-Osborne. “So being up there shows that the Bennetts are doing the right thing, and also that I’m able just to show the world that we’re here.”
Also in finals were Sabrina Duchesne, sixth in the women’s 400m freestyle S7; Nicolas-Guy Turbide, seventh in the men’s 50m freestyle S13; and the mixed 4x100m medley relay team of Shelby Newkirk, Fernando Lu, Katie Cosgriffe, and Reid Maxwell who touched the wall in eighth.
In the women’s 50m backstroke S3, Nikita Ens and Aly Van Wyck-Smart raced in the morning heats but did not advance to the final.
Leanne Taylor Wins Bronze in Para Triathlon
Leanne Taylor became the first Canadian woman to earn a medal in Para triathlon, capturing bronze in her debut Paralympic appearance. Taylor, competing in the PTWC (wheelchair) classification, was fourth after the bike portion but pushed to third during the run. She finished in 1:12:11.
“This is amazing. I don’t think it has really set in yet,” said Taylor. “It was a really tough day for me. I wasn’t feeling well coming into the race. I think I maybe had my first Games kind of nerves. This is a lot more to take on than you realize. You think you are mentally prepared and then you get here and are like ‘oh my goodness, this is big!”
“I was really nervous about how hard I was going to be able to push. You train for years for this, so you want to be able to give everything on the day.”
Kamylle Frenette was fourth in the women’s PTS5 race, finishing three minutes behind the podium finish, while Stefan Daniel was 10th in the men’s PTS5 category. Daniel, a five-time world champion and two-time Paralympic medallist, was leading partway through the bike portion of the race but unfortunately crashed. He was able to get back on his bike and finish the race.
Austin Smeenk Wins Bronze in Para Athletics
Austin Smeenk, competing at his third Paralympic Games, won his first career medal on Monday – a bronze in the men’s T34 100m final. He raced to the third podium spot in 16.19, just 0.05 off the silver medallist. The winner, Thailand’s Chaiwat Rattana, set a new Paralympic record of 14.76 seconds.
“I’m satisfied with the result of today being that I got on the podium for the first time at the Paralympics, but I think that there’s still room to grow,” said Smeenk. “There’s two more steps to climb on that podium, so I’m going to see what I can accomplish in the rest of the week with the remaining events I have.”
In the men’s T54 1500m heats, Brent Lakatos – a silver medallist a day ago – finished eighth and will not advance into the final.
Canada's Team Success at the Games
The Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team concluded preliminary play on a high, besting Germany 68-52. Patrick Anderson led the score sheet with 17 points, with Colin Higgins and Paralympic rookie Reed De’Aeth adding 14 apiece. With a final record of 2-1, the squad finished second in their group. The quarterfinals take place Tuesday.
Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team is advancing into the semifinals after defeating Rwanda 3-0 to wrap up the group stage. With a 2-1 record, the team finishes second in Pool B behind Brazil; the top two nations in both pools move into the semifinals scheduled for Thursday. This matches the team’s best-ever Paralympic result so far. Canada was fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Games where they reached the medal matches for the first time.
“It kind of was ugly volleyball for us, and that’s okay,” said team member Sarah Melenka. “I was sitting out there on the court, and I’m just like, this moment only happens every four years, and just embrace every single ball that comes over, no matter what.
“And we weren’t playing our best. They throw balls back at us that we couldn’t even imagine to come back at us, so it was a tough match. We had to grind it out, but we got the job done.”
Canada’s wheelchair rugby team will go home with a sixth-place finish following a 53-50 loss to France in the fifth-place playoff game. The squad ends one spot shy of their result at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Rob Shaw was eliminated from the wheelchair tennis quad tournament, dropping a 6-0, 6-0 decision to world No. 2 Niels Vink of Netherlands. It was Shaw’s first Paralympic quarterfinal appearance.
Beyond the Podium: A Look at Bennett's Success
The 20-year-old swimmer from Parksville, B.C., won Canada’s first gold medal of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris with his victory in the 100-metre breaststroke.
“It’s a mix of everything,” Bennett said after the medal ceremony at La Defense Arena.
“It’s the joy of being able to compete against the best athletes in the world and be the best out of them. Also the relief of finally showing the world I’m here and one of them, one of the best.”
Bennett is the first Canadian man to win a Paralympic gold medal in swimming since Benoit Huot in 2012 in London.
“Heavy,” was Bennett’s assessment of his prize. “Man, it’s a beautiful piece of history with me.”
He stood atop the podium two nights after taking silver in the 200-metre freestyle.
Bennett is the reigning world champion and holds the world record in the 200-metre individual medley, which he’ll race Wednesday.
The Canadian was the only man in Monday’s breaststroke final to swim under one minute four seconds in a time of 1:03.98.
Jake Michel of Australia took silver in 1:04.27. Naohide Yamaguchi of Japan was the bronze medallist in 1:04.94.
Yamaguchi had beaten Bennett for the breaststroke world title last year in Manchester, England.
“I was just more confident. We’ve been working my breaststroke every day for the last year,” Bennett said. “Breaststroke is such a finicky race for myself.
“I just had to hold on and race Yamaguchi. That was the only thing that mattered at that moment.”
When asked how it felt to beat world-record holder Yamaguchi, Bennett shook with emotion and needed a moment to compose himself.
“I’m having a hard time speaking right now. It was surprising to say the least,” he said. “I saw him in my peripherals and I just had to hunker down the last few metres.”
Bennett, who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of three, races in the S14 classification for athletes with an intellectual impairment.
His older sister Haley Bennett-Osborne, who has been his full-time coach since 2022, watched from the arena seats as her brother executed the work they’d done to improve his breaststroke.
“Right now, I’m tired, but during it was I was so excited I could barely watch,” Bennett-Osborne said.
“He really clinched on the last 25 (metres). That’s what we’ve been working on the last year because that’s where we thought he could improve on from Manchester when he got silver.”
“Breaststroke is such a technical stroke, we thought it was really important to dial in how he was going to feel in that moment when there’s lots of excitement, and its really emotional and he’s super-tired, super-fatigued. Technique was everything that 25 metres.”
The siblings relocated from Vancouver Island to Red Deer, Alta., last year when Bennett-Osborne got a job coaching the Red Deer Catalina Swim Club at the Michener Recreation Centre.
“I don’t think we have the typical sibling dynamic,” Bennett said.
“She’s always been quite responsible for her age and an amazing human being to say the least. It’s just chemistry I guess. She’s probably the only person I trust fully to get me to this point.”
Osborne-Bennett, 24, echoed that trust is the key to the siblings making their coach-athlete relationship work.
“Especially with his designation, it’s really important to have someone that understands his specific behaviours and training mentality,” she said.
“I just think I know him really well, so it’s easier for me.”
Canadians have won five medals in the pool in Paris. Swimming continues until Saturday.
