On Saturday, Canada’s Aurélie Rivard secured a bronze medal during the second day of the Para Pan Pacific Championships held in Walnut, California.
The 13-time Paralympic medalist achieved third place in the women’s 400-meter freestyle final, which featured competitors from the S6-11 and S13 classifications. Rivard is a three-time champion in the S10 400 freestyle at the Paralympics.
The 30-year-old athlete from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, earned 933 points after finishing the race in four minutes and 37.04 seconds.
Australia’s Lakeisha Patterson, competing in the S9 category, won gold with a score of 986 points, completing the race in 4:40.35. She outperformed S10 American swimmer Ali Truwit, who touched the wall first in 4:31.52 but received only 971 points.
Mary Jibb from Bracebridge, Ontario, came in eighth place with a time of 4:47.89, earning 848 points.
Points are allocated based on how closely a swimmer’s time aligns with the established world record for their classification. Essentially, the nearer the time is to the relevant record, the higher the points awarded.
Rivard has recently made her return to international events after being away for a year.
“This race has had the highest highs and the lowest lows for me, but it’s still my favorite,” Rivard shared with CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux after her podium finish. “I believe it’s still the event I’m best at, and I feel I have more to demonstrate and prove to myself; I think I can achieve better results than I have previously.”
In other results for Canada, Nicholas Bennett from Parksville, British Columbia, placed fourth in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB4-6, 8-9, 11, 13-14 final, where Japan’s Naohide Yamaguchi, the 2020 SB14 Paralympic champion, set a new world record with a time of 1:02.38.
Reid Maxwell from St. Albert, Alberta, finished fifth in the men’s 400m freestyle S6-9, S11, S13.
Fans can catch live broadcasts of the Para Pan Pacific Swimming Championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. The preliminaries for Day 3 are set to begin Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by the final session of the meet at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Aurélie Rivard of Montreal captured a 400-metre S10 freestyle bronze medal Saturday at the 2026 Para Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Walnut, California.