Team Canada Returns to Form, Ends Paris Paralympics with 29 Medals

Summary: 

• Canada ended the Paris Paralympics with 10 gold medals, marking a return to form following the Tokyo Games.
• Athletes grabbed 29 medals in total, tying for 15th with India in total medals and for 11th with Germany and Uzbekistan in gold.
• Team Canada went up the podium in six sports.

What was originally expected to be a bounce back for Team Canada at the Paralympic Games in Paris proved to be an actual return to form.

29 Total Medals with 10 Gold in Six Sports

The athletes took home 29 medals, just like they did in Rio in 2016 while surpassing Tokyo’s 2021 output of 21. 

In terms of gold, Team Canada won an incredible total of 10 – the most since their Beijing output of 19 at the 2008 Games and double the number in Tokyo. 

Canada made the podium in six sports, tying for the 15th position with India in total medals and for 11th with Germany and Uzbekistan in gold medals, out of 168 participating countries.

Swimming and track and field, two of the most important sports in the Paralympic Games, brought the team 22 medals which included Aurélie Rivard getting silver in S10 100m freestyle. All 10 gold medals came from the same athletes who “had a really good mix of new and more veteran athletes” performing on the “highest stage“, as CPC chief sport officer Catherine Gosselin-Despres commented.

Parksville, B.C.’s 20-year-old swimmer Nicholas Bennett brought home two gold and one silver.

“I’m going to dream of these memories every night probably for the rest of my life“, he said, while comparing the Tokyo Games that were held without spectators where “you could hear a pin drop” to the loud atmosphere in Paris where the swimmer “could barely hear” his thoughts. 

Bennet was chosen to carry Canada’s flag at the closing ceremony, together with Ottawa’s para canoeist Brianna Hennessy. 

The 39-year-old won the country’s first-ever Paralympic medal in canoeing with a silver, and commented on the “evolution of para sport across the world” and the fact that they were representing “the movement of people with disabilities”.

The women’s sitting volleyball team won bronze, once again marking a first for Canada in a team sport since the London Games in 2012.

Equal Bonuses for Paralympians and Olympians

While the COVID-19 pandemic severely affected para sport and the country’s tight restrictions added an extra layer of challenge for Tokyo hopefuls, this year’s Paralympics proved just what they could do with more optimal preparation.

Canadian Paralympic Committee chief executive officer Karen O’Neill called their performance “a bit of a bounce forward”, and a “crossroads for Canada” given their intention to “stop the downturn” of their “reduced performance”. 

Paris also marked the first time the country’s Paralympians will be rewarded with the same bonuses as their Olympic counterparts. 

Namely, they will receive $20,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for a silver medal, and $10,000 for a bronze one.

The Canadian Paralympic Committee will pay athletes out of an $8-million endowment fund. Health tech entrepreneur Sanjay Malaviya donated $4 million to the fund while the federal government followed suit with $2 million.

Malaviya has also decided to renew grants of $5,000 per medallist on top of the medal bonuses.