RIO DE JANEIRO – When the 400 metres was added to the Paralympic program for Rio, Michelle Stilwell set her plan in motion.
Gold was the goal.
The Canadian wheelchair sprinter added another Paralympic title to her illustrious resume on Saturday, for her fifth career gold medal and second gold for the track and field team in Rio.
The 42-year-old from Parksville, B.C., has dominated the 100 and 200 events internationally, but the 200 was scrapped from the schedule this year and replaced with the 400.
“For the last year and a half, two years, it’s really been my focus, to prepare for the 400,” Stilwell said. “I was pretty ecstatic. Going in I was ranked No. 2, so to be able to finish on top is what I came here to do. And to know the preparation my coach Peter Lawless and I put in to prepare, this is really what the goal was.”
Running out of Lane 3, Stilwell had passed her competitors with a few pushes of the wheel on the first corner, and cruised to victory in one minute 5.43 seconds for what will stand, at least for the next four years, as a Paralympic record.
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Canada’s Brent Lakatos won the wheelchair 100 metres a night earlier.
Stilwell, who’s also a Member of the Legislative Assembly in B.C. — she’s the B.C. Minister of Social Development — is only the second female Paralympic athlete to have ever won gold in two separate summer sport events. She has four track gold medals, plus was a member of Canada’s wheelchair basketball team that claimed gold in 2000 in Sydney.
Every victory, she said, has its own story.
“In Sydney I had the opportunity to compete with 11 other amazing women and share the podium with them,” said Stilwell, who was paralyzed at the age of 17 when she was riding piggyback with a friend and fell backwards hitting her neck on a stair.
“And then Beijing was my first time on the track, and to be able to bring home two gold medals at those Games was phenomenal for me.
“And then to try to repeat that in London, it didn’t quite go the way I wanted it to. And now the 400 is an event we’ve never had for my classification, so I’m just elated that I was able to start off my Games with this performance and now I’m looking forward to a week from now in the 100 metres.”
The world record-holder in the 100 metres will race that distance next Saturday.
Canada’s Stefan Daniel also climbed on the medal podium on Saturday, racing to a silver medal in the inaugural triathlon.
The 19-year-old from Calgary moved up from fourth to second with a terrific 5K run. Daniel, who has a bilateral radial club hands, is also a strong able-bodied athlete and competes in cross-country for the University of Calgary’s track team.
Canada’s coxed four rowing team — Victoria Nolan of Toronto, Meghan Montgomery of Winnipeg, Andrew Todd of Thunder Bay, Ont., and Curtis Halladay of Sudbury, Ont., — secured its spot in Sunday’s final after winning the repechage round.
Swimmer Aurelie Rivard, who won Canada’s first paralympic gold medal on Friday, will compete for a second later Saturday. Rivard had the fourth-best qualifying time in the women’s S10 100 backstroke during the morning preliminaries.
“The time is faster than I thought,” said the 20-year-old from of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. “It’s my fastest of the season. I was mentally and physically prepared to go fast this morning. I’m looking forward to tonight to see what I can do there.”
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