It was a day that saw two of Canada’s most decorated Paralympians shine, with wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos winning a silver medal on the track in the men’s 5,000 metres.
Rivard, a 25-year-old from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., pulled away over the final 50 metres on Saturday, touching the wall in 58.14, more than a body length ahead of Chantalle Zijderveld of the Netherlands.
“Today is even more special than it should be, winning gold, especially coming from kind of a failure from me on Day 1.
Rivard, who was born with an underdeveloped left hand, has seven Paralympic medals and carried Canada’s flag in the closing ceremonies in Rio.
“We did maybe five race simulations , but they weren’t really race simulations,” she said.
Rivard recently opened up about her mental health challenges in a Sport Canada video, saying she was bullied in school and battled anxiety, panic attacks and an eating disorder.
“The day I let myself … get out of this discomfort, I focused on swimming,” Rivard said in the French video, with English translation.
Marie, Ont., and Montreal’s Hogan had a strong swim and bike, and started the five kilometre running leg in second place before fading to fifth.
The run wasn’t quite what I wanted it to be, but this is the Paralympic Games, and it is nothing to shake a stick at.
”We never stopped playing; we believed.