Paralympics, Day 7 Finals: Jessica Long Wins 17th Career Gold
For the 17th time in her storied career, Jessica Long is a Paralympic champion.
The American won her 30th career Paralympic medal by claiming gold in the women’s S8 400 freestyle Wednesday at the Paris Paralympics. It was a typical tour de force from Long, her winning margin exactly 3.5 seconds at the Paris La Defense Arena.
Long’s medal gives the U.S. seven golds and 18 total medals at the Paralympics, with 17 from the women’s side and one in mixed relays. The U.S. is tied for fifth in the table in golds and sixth in overall medals.
All the action from the seventh day in Paris:
Men’s S12 100 freestyle
Prelims promised a tight event here, with the top six finishers clustered within .76 seconds. The final did not disappoint, with an upset to boot.
Yaroslav Denysenko of Ukraine pulled a slight surprise, winning in 53.11. His countryman and world-record holder Maksym Veraksa earned silver, .53 seconds behind. He was just on the right side of an epic touch, .01 ahead of Raman Salei of Azerbaijan, who got bronze. That denied Stephen Clegg, the British swimmer who was the fastest qualifier from prelims. Clegg went 53.67. He had been 53.73 in prelims.
Veraska was first at the wall, with Denysenko fourth. But Denysenko rallied in 27.65, the only sub-28 final 50, to get gold. For the 23-year-old, it’s his first gold medal after a bronze in the S12 100 backstroke in Paris and four silver medals in Rio in 2016.
Veraksa’s medal is the 13th in the 40-year-old’s storied career and first of Paris. He took silver in this event in Tokyo three years ago after winning it in Beijing and London. Salei has both of Azerbaijan’s swimming medals at these games.
Women’s S12 100 freestyle
Make it three gold medals for Carol Santiago. The Brazilian swimmer was the only one to break a minute, clocking in at 59.30 seconds to win by a clear second. That’s six career golds and eight total Paralympics medals for the 39-year-old from Sao Paulo.
Gomes Santiago set the pace in prelims and made no mistake in finals. She was a second clear of the competitors at the wall – only countrywoman Lucilene da Silva Sousa was within a 1.01 seconds, though she faded – and Gomes Santiago brought it home with the second-fastest final 50.
Second was Ukraine’s Anna Stetsenko in 1:00.39 for her third medal of the Games. Japan’s Ayano Tsujiuchi, formerly an S13 swimmer, won bronze in 1:01.05.
Men’s SM14 200 individual medley
Just 20 years of age, Nicholas Bennett’s world record at Canadian Trials in May signaled him as a star for the future. The future is now, Bennett confirmed with his second gold and third medal of these Games.
Bennett went 2:06.05, trimming nearly two seconds off the Tokyo Paralympic record set by Reece Dunn of Great Britain. Bennett was 2.5 seconds ahead of the field to win gold decisively. It’s just .12 off his world mark of 2:05.97.
“I was certainly a lot more comfortable racing today,” Bennett said. “I knew there was definitely a chance being so close to my world record. Having a sense of serenity definitely calms the emotions.”
Great Britain had three finalists and one on the podium, Rhys Darbey winning silver in 2:08.61. He just edged out Ricky Betar of Australia, who set an Oceania record of 2:08.69. Dmytro Vanzenko of Ukraine was fourth.
“I really couldn’t tell,” Darbey said. “I knew the Ukrainian next to me, I knew he was giving me a good race in that last 50 meters but I really couldn’t tell how tight it was. I’ve worked a lot on my touch, just the straight-on finish. I am glad to see that coming into good effect.”
Women’s SM14 200 individual medley
The IM brought a rare scramble from prelims to finals, but the swimmers that ended up on top may not have been a surprise.
Valeriia Shabalina, the world record holder, won gold in 2:22.40, using her stellar back half of the race to take control. Competing as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete, it’s Shabalina’s third medal of this Games and second gold. A world-record holder since 2016, the 29-year-old took home her fifth Paralympic gold and eighth total medal.
Poppy Maskill continued an outstanding meet by gleaning silver in 2:23.93. It’s the British teen’s fourth medal, a second silver to go with two golds. Aira Kinoshita of Japan god bronze in 2:25.96.
Shabalina had been fourth and Maskill fifth in prelims, apparently keeping their strength for the final. Olivia Newman-Baronius of Britain was quickest in prelims at 2:28.03, .02 ahead of Kinoshita, but she slipped to sixth in finals in 2:32.50.
Men’s S8 400 freestyle
Canada’s Reid Maxwell twice set the America’s record, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Alberto Amodeo of Italy. The Italian led from the 200-meter mark onward in the final, going 4:23.23. For the 23-year-old, it bumps him up a spot from silver in Tokyo to the top step of the podium.
“It was a pretty hard battle,” Amodeo said. “I could not even have imagined going this fast. The podium is at an extreme level. With the time of the gold medal in Tokyo today you are not even on the podium. The level has increased a lot and I am very, very happy to be on the highest spot on the podium. This is amazing.”
He had a push. Maxwell went 4:25.95 to set a continental record and get the top seed in prelims, then was two seconds faster in finals at 4:23.90. And even that wasn’t enough to overtake Amodeo for gold. Maxwell, another a burgeoning generation of young Canadians who just turned 17 on Monday, got his maiden medal in silver. He did it by outdueling the reigning champion, Andrei Nikolaev of NPA, by a tenth. Nikolaev went 4:24.00 for bronze.
“It’s all I ever dreamed of just to come here,” Maxwell said. “Being able to medal here is a whole other thing. Honestly, that fight for the last 50m definitely made it worth it.”
It locked the Americans off the podium in a continued dour showing form the men. Noah Jaffe had been second in prelims with Matthew Torres third. Jaffe finished fourth in finals in 4:25.07. Torres, the bronze medalist in Tokyo, was never a factor in the final, more than seven seconds off the podium in fifth.
Women’s S8 400 freestyle
Medal No. 30 in the cabinet for Jessica Long was typically dominant. She bossed the final of the 400 free, winning in 4:48.75, 3.5 seconds ahead of Alice Tai of Great Britain. Tai was nearly eight second sup on the battle for bronze, won by Xenia Francesca Palazzo of Italy in 5:00.13, .12 over an Asian record by Zheng Tingting of China and Brock Whiston of Great Britain, who was also 5:00.
“I’m really happy with that,” Tai said. “It’s the fastest I’ve gone this season, by four seconds, so I’m really happy with the time. It’s only a few seconds off what I did before my amputation, which is my target. After my swims this week, I think it’s possible, which is really exciting.”
But the race was about Long. Now 32 years old, she’s still able to produce outstanding swims, with a medal count nearly matching her age. She won this event in 2004 in Athens and again in 2008 and 2012. She was the silver medalist in Tokyo, to world record holder Lakeisha Patterson of Australia, and took silver to countrywoman Morgan Stickney in the event in Tokyo (with Palazzo in bronze). That makes four titles in this event and six straight Paralympics in which she’s medaled.
Men’s SB2 50 breaststroke
Jose Arnulfo Castorena of Mexico first won the men’s SB2 100 breaststroke at age 22 at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Twenty-four years later, he emphatically made his way back atop the podium.
Now 46, the native of Guadalajara won Wednesday in 59.41 seconds, 3.33 seconds clear of the field.
“I am really proud,” Castorena said. “I am very excited also because I see so many young people here. It’s really great to see this competition grow. Because I am 46, I have problems in my arm, in my tendon. But I am happy. Until the day I retire, I will keep doing this.”
He paints a contrast to the silver medalist, Ismail Barlov of the Bosnia & Herzegovina, age 13, who went 1:02.74 for his maiden medal. (His country was only eight years old when Castorena won his first medal). Australian Grant Patterson won bronze in 1:04.54, denying Cristopher Tronco. The 38-year-old, in his fourth Paralympics, is a four-time Worlds medalist but is still looking for a first piece of Paralympics hardware.
For Castoreno, it’s a fourth career title and seventh career medal. He’s won this event in 2000, 2004, 2021 and 2024.
Women’s SB3 50 breaststroke
The first five times Monica Boggioni reached the Paralympic podium, it was as a bronze medalist. The Italian seemed determined to change that Wednesday.
Boggioni set the Paralympic record in prelims at 53.70, then went quicker in finals at 53.25 to finally get her gold. The time is also a European record.
Patricia Pereira won silver in 58.31. For the 46-year-old, it’s a third overall medal and the first individual of her career. The only other swimmer under a minute was Maria Fernandez Infante of Spain. The reigning champion in this event picked up her sixth career medal in 58.63.
Men’s S7 50 freestyle
A Paralympic record in Andrii Tursov in the morning was not enough. The Ukrainian decided to take home a world record in the evening. Tursov destroyed his world record, taking it from 27.07 to 26.38 to rout the field in a dominant performance. He had been 27.31 in prelims.
It’s the ninth career medal and third gold for Tursov, who won this event in Tokyo three years ago.
Second was Carlos Serrano Zarate with his ninth all-time medal. He went 27.60 to edge out Egor Efrosinin by four tenths. Yurii Shenhur was .05 off the podium in fourth.
Women’s S7 100 freestyle
Dreams of an American podium sweep that were in place after taking the top three spots in prelims vanished in the wake of Jiang Yuyan’s world-record kick.
The Chinese teen set an S6 world record to win the S7 event in 1:09.68. That destroyed her world record by a second. It also undercut the existing Paralympic record by more than a second and took 1.3 seconds out of the PR set by Ellie Marks of the U.S. in the morning.
The Americans had high hopes entering the race. Morgan Stickney, who competed in Tokyo in S8, was quickest in prelims in 1:10.35, followed by Marks’ Americas record and McKenzie Coan. Jiang was lurking in fifth.
In the final, she exploded off the blocks. She was out first in 33.68, nearly a second ahead of her American chasers. Stickney, who was fifth at the wall, closed hardest to claim silver in 1:10.11. But Italy’s Giulia Terzi grabbed bronze in 1:10.43, with Marks fourth in 1:11.32 and Coan fifth in 1:11.58. Terzi won this event in Tokyo.
It’s the seventh career medal for Jiang, six of them gold. She doesn’t turn 20 until November. Marks remains on eight career medals, Coan on seven. Marks’ swim meant the two S6 swimmers classing up against S7s finished in the top four.
Women’s S9 100 freestyle
Alexa Leary served notice that she was in great form when she improved her world record in prelims Wednesday morning. Finals brought more speed and gold.
Leary took her record down further, from 59.64 in April to 59.60 in finals to 59.53 for gold in the final individual event of the session. She went out hard, in 27.91, building a lead of more than a second. That was enough to withstand a charge from Christie Raleigh Crossley of the U.S. coming home. Raleigh Crossley won silver in 1:00.18, an Americas record. Bronze went to Mariana Ribiero of Brazil in 1:02.22. She overtook Natalie Sims of the U.S., who was third in prelims and third at the wall but fell to fifth.
Mixed 400 freestyle relay 49 points
Yaroslav Denysenko finished a historic evening by anchoring Ukraine to gold in the mixed relay. The squad went 3:53.84, with the team of Maryna Piddubna (S11), Oleksii Virchenko (S13), Anna Stetsenko (S12) and the S12 Denysenko off the end. The Ukrainians were sixth after 100 meters and second at the final exchange before Denysenko blasted home in 52.75. It’s faster than the 53.11 he used to win the individual event earlier in the session and took Ukraine from 3.5 seconds back to a winning margin of 3.10 over Brazil.
The Brazilians were first after the second and third handoffs but ended up in silver. Mattheus Rheine and Douglas Matera led a front-loaded squad. Lucilene da Silva Sousa kept them in the lead, but it wasn’t enough for Carol Santiago on the anchor, though she still clinched her fourth medal of the meet.
Spain got bronze in 3:57.95. The Americans (Anatasia Pagonis, David Abrahams, Evan Wilkerson and Olivia Chambers) were nonfactors in fifth.