This Sunday (1st), Brazilian swimming had its least productive day so far at the Paris Paralympic Games. However, there was no shortage of achievements. There were two bronze medals, one with Lídia Cruz in the 150-meter medley SM4 and one with the 4×100 free relay S14. With these two podiums, Brazil now has 399 medals in the history of the Games.
Lídia’s medal was hard-won. In the SM4 class, for athletes with physical and motor disabilities, the swimmer from Duque de Caxias, who is about to turn 26 next Wednesday (4), made a comeback, reaching the podium in the last 50 meters, where she swam freestyle. She finished with a time of 2min57s16, a new record for the Americas. The gold went to Germany’s Tanja Scholz and the silver to Nataliia Butkova, who competes under a neutral flag. The bronze in Paris was Lídia’s first medal in the Paralympics.
Later, in the 4×100 free relay, class S14, for athletes with intellectual disabilities, Brazil once again experienced strong emotions. The relay began with Arthur Xavier Ribeiro. Next, Gabriel Bandeira set a strong pace and took the lead. In the final part of the race, when Beatriz Borges Carneiro and Ana Karolina Soares fell into the water, Great Britain opened up a lead at the front and Australia, which had a man to close the relay, closed the gap and passed Brazil, finishing second. The Brazilian team finished with a time of 3min47s49, a new record for the Americas.
In the other finals on Sunday, Phelipe Rodrigues finished fourth in the 100-meter freestyle S10, Patrícia Pereira was eighth in the same event as Lídia Cruz, Roberto Alcalde Rodriguez was sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke SB5, the same result as Laila Suzigan in the women’s version of the event.
Gabriel Araújo, also known as Gabrielzinho, also competed in the final. He finished fourth in the 150 medley S3. Gabriel was the only athlete from the S2 class (who have a greater degree of physical and motor limitation than athletes from S3) to participate in the final, even so he finished ahead of four other athletes from the class immediately above his. Gabrielzinho’s time (3min14s02) is the new world record for S2 athletes in this test, surpassing the previous mark, established by Gabriel himself on Sunday morning, during the qualifiers.
