Paris — The final swimming night of the Paris 2024 Paralympics ran on two tracks: a Chinese teenager collecting history, and everyone else racing for the margins. Jiang Yuyan, 19, closed her meet at La Defense Arena on Saturday with a world record in the women’s 100m backstroke S6, her seventh gold of these Games. “It’s a perfect tournament for me,” the second-time Paralympian said. “I was not sure if I could win this event.”
The arithmetic of her week is worth spelling out. Entered in six solo events plus three relays, she topped the podium seven times in ten days, starting August 29 by taking the women’s 50m S6 freestyle at 32.59 seconds, a Paralympic record. The route was not frictionless. On Friday she swam through severe period pain to win the 400m freestyle S6, her sixth gold, after her mother floated the idea of withdrawing. “I still wanted to give it a go even though I was not sure if could win,” Jiang said, adding, “I just asked myself to spare no effort and have no regret.” She lost her right arm and leg in a car accident at four; on Sunday she carried China’s flag as one of two closing-ceremony bearers. “It’s a compliment for my performance and it’s priceless,” she said of the honor.
In the lane beside history stood Elizabeth Marks, whose record Jiang broke. The American finished with five silvers in Paris, bookending the meet — silver on day one, silver in that S6 backstroke final on day ten — and had rehearsed the grace in advance. “I’ve told everybody, I’ve always just wanted to be in the pool when someone breaks my world record, and she did. And she let me know when it happened and gave me a big hug. It was a very special moment,” Marks said.
Team USA’s final night delivered four medals for a Paris total of 30. Six-time Paralympian Jessica Long took gold in the women’s 100-meter butterfly S8; Mallory Weggemann claimed her seventh career Paralympic medal with silver in the 50-meter butterfly S7, her fourth Games and first as a mother; and the 34-points mixed 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay quartet — Christie Raleigh Crossley, Matthew Torres, Natalie Sims and Noah Jaffe — surged late for bronze in the last swimming event of the Games. Weggemann shared the podium with fellow mother Giulia Terzi of Italy. She made the point in six words — “motherhood is a comma and not a period.” And: “We had two mamas on that podium tonight,” she said.
The margins elsewhere were thinner. Evan Austin missed a medal in the men’s 50-meter butterfly S7 by two-tenths of a second, fourth in 29.89. Jaffe, a silver medalist Thursday, came back sixth in the 100-meter butterfly S8 at 1:05.26 before his relay heroics; Taylor Winnett ended her first Games eleventh in the 200-meter individual medley SM10 at 2:46.42; McKenzie Coan, a seven-medal Paralympian after her 400 freestyle silver, placed thirteenth in the 50 fly; Evan Wilkerson closed 15th in the S12 fly final.
Seven golds at one end, two-tenths of a second at the other: that is the whole distribution of a Paralympic final night, compressed. Jiang’s summary reached past the pool — “as long as you have dreams and try your best to pursuit them, we will all be seen and we will all shine.” Paris, for ten days, was the proof.
Sources
- Paralympics | Para swimming sensation Jiang bags home seven golds from Paris-Xinhua
- Team USA Wins Four Medals on the Final Night of Paris 2024 | U.S. Paralympics Swimming
