Wheelchair racer Cody Fournie of Victoria, in winning the second gold medal in as many days by an Island athlete at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, pointed to the physical obstacles Paralympians must overcome.
Fournie’s win in the men’s T-51 200-metres Tuesday at the Stade de France followed Parksville swimmer Nicholas Bennett’s victory Monday in the men’s SB-14 100-metre breaststroke at La Défense Arena. They are Canada’s only two gold medals at the 2024 Paralympic Games. Both received shoutouts on X from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “This was Cody Fournie’s first-ever Paralympic race and he took home the gold for Canada. Congratulatons Cody!” That followed the PM signalling out Bennett the day before: “Canada, your first Paris 2024 Paralympics gold medal winner is Nicholas Bennett! Making Canada proud.”
It almost goes without saying how bravely extraordinary athletes have to be just to make it to the Paralympics.
“What was the most difficult part about racing was getting this chair figured out. Without having any stomach muscles, I had to learn how to use my head to change the direction of the chair,” said the Fournie, who became quadriplegic following an accident when he was 11 years old.
“That took quite a while to figure out. But all that hard work has paid off.”
That it did as Fournie, 35, broke his own Canadian record by going 37.64 seconds to take gold in the 200 metres ahead of silver-medallist Toni Piipanen of Finland (38.55) and bronze-medallist Peter Genyn of Belgium (38.65.).
“It feels really good,” said Fournie, in his post-race media scrum.
“The 200 metres has always been something that has been difficult for me. But we just kept working on it and working on it because it was the most difficult for me. And it paid off, it truly did. The hard work, the nutrition and hydration has paid off.”
That was all the stuff he learned while training under coach Geoff Harris of Victoria at the Western Hub national middle-distance centre on the PISE track at the Camosun College Interurban campus. Fournie started out in wheelchair rugby, making national-team level, before switching to wheelchair racing: “The transition from rugby to racing helped because I was putting so much time and effort into training, so coming over to racing wasn’t that difficult because I was so used to training already.”
He sent a shoutout to his biggest fan: “My wife, Abigail Fournie. She’s a beautiful woman, and she’s given me tons of support, and I love her very much.”
Fournie’s gold comes after another Paralympics medal won by a Harris-coached athlete from the Western Hub training centre at the PISE track on the Camosun Interurban campus. Victoria-based Austin Smeenk won the bronze medal in the men’s T-34 100-metres wheelchair final Monday at the Stade de France.
Fournie and Smeenk have more races this week and further opportunities for the podium. So does Bennett, who already has gold and silver in the pool at the Paris Games.
Meanwhile, one of the Island’s biggest medal hopes, ambulatory 1,500-metre runner Nate Riech of Victoria, is readying to defend his gold medal from the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics on Friday at the Stade de France.
Canada has won 13 medals in the Paris Paralympics, including two gold, four silver and seven bronze.
