Aurelie Rivard Wins Seventh Swimming Canada Paralympic Swimmer of the Year Honor
Paralympic champion Aurelie Rivard was named Swimming Canada’s Female Paralympic Swimmer of the Year this week. It’s the seventh time in her career that she’s won the honor, dating to 2014.
No one else has won the award more than four times. The 28-year-old native of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, earned a gold medal in the S10 400 freestyle at the Paris Olympics, to go with silver in the 100 free and bronze in the 50 free. She has won 13 Paralympic medals (six goal, four silver, three bronze) in her career.
Rivard has competed at four Paralympics, making her debut at age 15 in London in 2012. She’s the first Canadian female swimmer to medal at four Paralympic Games. Only one Canadian Paralympic swimmer (Stephanie Dixon) has medaled at three consecutive Paralympics.
“Rocky and rewarding are words that come mind,” Rivard said of her 2024 campaign. “It was a perilous year with several personal challenges. I worked a lot on myself to be able to show up in Paris. All this work will benefit me for the rest of my life. I also wanted to enjoy my Games to the fullest, without getting lost in the emotions of my performances. And I think I succeeded.”
Rivard detailed bouts of anxiety and panic attacks around races in particular. She did not finish the 400 free in the final of the 2022 World Championships and scratched the finals after a strong prelims performance at the 2023 event. She had won that event at Tokyo Paralympics in 2021 and in Rio in 2016.
She stomached disappointment in the 100 free at the Paris Paralympics, only managing silver. She had a long wait for the 400, her last shot at gold. Overcoming that, as much as beating the field once the final started, was a source of pride.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt such relief and pride in myself,” she said of touching the wall first. “ … I experienced a lot of anxiety in the hours leading up to it due to my apprehension of the race. It was not only my last chance to bring home a gold medal, but it was also the first time I stood on the starting block since I stopped mid-race in 2022 and withdrew in 2023. The amount of work I did to focus, before and during the race, was tremendous.”
Rivard’s swimming future is up in the air. She’ll focus on her legal studies in 2025 and hasn’t decided if she’ll pursue the 2025 World Championships or another Paralympic cycle.