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PARIS – Canada won its first Paralympic medal in women’s sitting volleyball and ended the country’s team sport podium drought Saturday.

The women’s volleyball team swept Brazil 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-18) to take the bronze medal at North Paris Arena.

The women were the first Canadian side to claim a Paralympic medal in a team sport since the men’s wheelchair basketball team won gold in London in 2012.

“Oh my gosh, literally disbelief, but also, we did it,” said veteran Heidi Peters of Neerlandia, Alta. “It’s indescribable.”

Canada finished seventh in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth in Tokyo three years ago.

Seven players of the dozen Canadians were Rio veterans and nine returned from the team in Tokyo.

Eleven were members of the squad that earned a silver medal at the 2022 world championship.

“I know how hard every athlete and every staff member and all of our family back home have worked for this moment,” captain Danielle Ellis said.

“It’s been years and years and years in the making, our third Paralympic Games, and we knew we wanted to be there.”

The women earned a measure of revenge on the Brazilians, who beat Canada for bronze in Tokyo and also in a pool game in Paris.

“There’s a lot of history with us and Brazil,” Peters acknowledged. “Today we just knew that we could do it. We were like, ‘This is our time and if we just show up and play our style of volleyball, serving tough and hitting the ball hard, the game will probably going our way.’ And it did.”

Calgary’s Jennifer Oakes led Canada with 10 attack points. Ellis of White Rock, B.C., and Peters each contributed nine.

Canada registered 15 digs as a team to Brazil’s 10.

“Losing to Brazil in the second game was tough,” Ellis said. “It just lit the fire beneath us.”

Canada’s men’s wheelchair basketball team fell 75-62 to Germany in the bronze-medal game in Paris.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

PARIS – Canada’s Danielle Dorris defended her title at the Paralympic Games on Saturday.

The 21-year-old swimmer from Fredericton won gold in the women’s S7 50-metre final with a time of 33.62 seconds.

Mallory Weggemann of the United States took silver, while Italy’s Guilia Terzi was third.

Tess Routliffe of Caledon, Ont., was fourth after picking up a silver and a bronze earlier in the Games.

Dorris captured gold in Tokyo three years ago, and was the youngest member of Canada’s team at age 13 at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

She was born with underdeveloped arms, a condition known as bilateral radial dysplasia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

PARIS – Canadian para canoeist Brianna Hennessy raced to her first Paralympic medal with a reminder of her mother on her paddle.

The 39-year-old from Ottawa took silver in the women’s 200-metre sprint Saturday in Paris.

The design on Hennessy’s paddle includes a cardinal in remembrance of her late mother Norma, the letter “W’ for Wonder Woman and a cat.

“My mother passed away last year, so I said I’d be racing down the course with her,” Hennessy said Saturday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

“In our family, a cardinal represents what our love means. My mum was my Wonder Woman, and this is a cardinal rising up. This is our family pet that passed away two months after my mum, of cancer, because I think their love was together.

“All this represents so much to me, so it’s my passion piece for Paris.”

Hennessy finished just over a second behind gold medallist Emma Wiggs of Britain in the women’s VL2 Va’a, which is a canoe that has a support float and is propelled with a single-blade paddle.

Hennessy’s neck was broken when she was struck by a speeding taxi driver in Toronto in 2014 when she was 30. She has tetraplegia, which is paralysis in her arms and legs.

“This year’s the 10-year anniversary of my accident,” Hennessy said. “I should have been dead. I’ve been fighting back ever since.

“This is the pinnacle of it all for me and everything I’ve been fighting for. It made it all worth it.”

After placing fifth in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, Hennessy was a silver medallist in the last three straight world championships in the event.

She will race the women’s kayak single Sunday. Hennessy and Wiggs have a tradition of hugging after races.

“I always talk about the incredible athletes here, and how the Paralympics means so much more because everyone here has a million reasons to give up, and we’ve all chosen to just go on,” the Canadian said. “It’s more about the camaraderie.”

Hennessy boxed and played hockey and rugby before she was hit by the taxi.

She was introduced to wheelchair rugby by the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.

She eventually turned to paddling at the Ottawa River Canoe Club, which led her to the Paralympic podium in Paris.

“It has a good ring to it,” Hennessy said. “I’m so happy. I feel like we’ve had to overcome so much to get here, especially in the last year and a half. I’m just so proud.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.