It was a memorable and eventful penultimate day for Island athletes at the 2024 Paris Paralympics with wheelchair racer Austin Smeenk of Victoria winning T-34 men’s 800-metres gold, Nate Riech of Victoria silver in the men’s ambulatory 1,500 metres at the Stade de France on Saturday while swimmer Nicholas Bennett of Parksville was named Canadian co-flagbearer for today’s closing ceremony (10:50 a.m. PT).
Smeenk won the fifth gold medal by an Island athlete in the Paris Paralympics, and eighth overall, including the two gold medals by Bennett and two golds by T-51 wheelchair racer Cody Fournie of Victoria. The five golds represent more than half of Canada’s total of nine gold medals.
Bennett also captured a silver, Smeenk a bronze and Riech came through with a riveting silver-medal performance.
Cyclist Mel Pemble of Victoria, a rare Summer and Winter Paralympian, had a fourth-place finish in the veldodrome.
Smeenk, Fournie and Riech train at the Western Hub national middle-distance centre on the PISE track at the Camosun College Interurban campus, Smeenk and Fournie under coach Geoff Harris.
“It’s a good day for me, good day for Canada, good day for our program,” said Smeenk.
“There’s a lot that went into this and a lot of people that contributed,” added Smeenk, who lives with paraplegia, an inherited condition that causes progressive loss of movement in the lower limbs.
“Everybody here is celebrating a single-person sport, but there’s a massive team behind me that is contributed to this. It’s a big win for everybody. We’re all Team Canada.”
Smeenk took it to the pack, pulling away late in the race for a comfortable roll to the top of the podium.
“I didn’t want to shock the nervous system and floor it,” he said.
“I’d rather just roll into it. So I brought that max speed into the picture throughout the final third of the race and got the results with that.”
Riech, hit by an errant golf ball on the head when he was 10 years old, could not defend his championship from the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, but took his silver lining in stride with grace and sportsmanship.
“At the end of the day, those guys were all great to me when I won [in Tokyo] and I have nothing but respect for the athlete that won [Amen Allah Tissaoui of Tunisia],” said Riech.
“He was the best on the day and I’m just proud.”
Bennett said he was honoured to be selected as closing ceremony co-flagbearer with medallist canoe racer Brianna Hennessy of Ottawa. They represent age bookends, with Bennett 20 and Hennessy 39.
“Being the flagbearer is such a monumental occasion,” said Bennett.
“Being able to hold the flag and represent all the athletes that have competed is just another level of amazement for me that I have been able to achieve at these Paralympics.”
Canada has 29 medals — nine gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze.
