Women collect final debut Paralympic medals

As the women competed in the final races at Copacabana beach on Sunday, nine medals, four nations, three podiums and one historical day were represented as the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games came to a close for paratriathlon. Grace Norman (USA) in PT4, Allysa Seely (USA) in PT2 and Katie Kelly (AUS) in PT5 were crowned the first first women’s Paralympic Champions.

PT4 The day started with American Grace Norman being awarded the first women’s Paralympic gold medal after a back and forth battle on the course finally ended in her favour.

“It has been a long journey, a lot of training and just a lot of everything. So to come across that line for the U.S. and to take first in the history of paratriathlon is just an incredible feeling,” said Norman of her victory.

Completing the first podium of the day was Great Britain’s Lauren Steadman who finished with silver and Frenchwoman Gwladys Lemoussu who earned bronze.

Norman nabbed an early lead out of the water and went into the first transition with a slight advantage. Although two-time Paralympic swimmer Steadman was expected to lead out of the swim, she missed the first swim buoy and had to return to navigate around it, swimming an extra 25 metres. While she pushed hard to catch back up and exit the water in second, it was a pinnacle point in the race.

As the women made their way through the bike course, it only took one lap for Steadman to catch up to Norman and surpass the American. Knowing that Norman is a world record holding runner, Steadman hammered on the bike for a fighting chance at gold, but never manged to move more than five seconds ahead of Norman.

Trailing behind in third was Aussie Kate Doughty, who held strong a minute behind the leaders on the bike. As the top two women finished off the bike and made their way into the second transition, Steadman had increased her lead to 23 seconds heading out onto the run.

However, Norman, who will also be competing in athletics in the Paralympics in the 400 metre run, knows her strength is in the last discipline. It wasn’t long before she reclaimed the lead, this time never letting go. After the first lap she had overtaken Steadman for a ten-second advantage and by the time she crossed the finish line to make history, she had the lead by over a minute.

The silver then went to Steadman, who put in a valiant effort, despite the misstep early on in the swim.

Steadman said of her performance, “I had a fantastic start and I knew that it would be the swim where I could do some damage, but I just missed the orange buoy, so in that sense I went wrong at 25 metres, and I had to go back. So I went around the buoy in front of everybody, so I could see the Australian, I could see the American and I got right back in there. The whole swim I could see Grace there, but the tide would not allow me to get there. Then out on the bike I knew this was the place where I could get just a little bit ahead. I killed myself in the swim just to catch up and then I tried really hard on the bike and it just took my legs on the run. I was running fine, but she was just there and she is a phenomenal runner and I gave it my all and I am very proud of my silver medal.”

The podium was completed when Frenchwoman Lemoussu crossed the line for the bronze, putting in a brilliant run to overtake Doughty.

PT2 The U.S. women made history in more ways than one when Allysa Seely, …

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