Nicholas Bennett swims to Canada's 1st gold at Paris Paralympics
20-year-old from Parksville, B.C., clocks time of 1:03.98 in SB14 100m breaststroke
Nicholas Bennett shed "everything" tears during O Canada at the Paralympic Games pool Monday.
The 20-year-old swimmer from Parksville, B.C., won Canada's first gold medal of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris with his victory in the 100-metre breaststroke.
"It's a mix of everything," Bennett said after the medal ceremony at La Defense Arena.
"It's the joy of being able to compete against the best athletes in the world and be the best out of them. Also the relief of finally showing the world I'm here and one of them, one of the best."
Bennett is the first Canadian man to win a Paralympic gold medal in swimming since Benoit Huot in 2012 in London.
"Heavy," was Bennett's assessment of his prize. "Man, it's a beautiful piece of history with me."
WATCH | Bennett wins gold medal:
He stood atop the podium two nights after taking silver in the 200-metre freestyle.
Bennett is the reigning world champion and holds the world record in the 200-metre individual medley, which he'll race Wednesday.
Jake Michel of Australia took silver in 1:04.27. Naohide Yamaguchi of Japan was the bronze medallist in 1:04.94.
Yamaguchi had beaten Bennett for the breaststroke world title last year in Manchester, England.
"I was just more confident. We've been working my breaststroke every day for the last year," Bennett said. "Breaststroke is such a finicky race for myself.
"I just had to hold on and race Yamaguchi. That was the only thing that mattered at that moment."
WATCH | Bennett reacts to victory:
When asked how it felt to beat world-record holder Yamaguchi, Bennett shook with emotion and needed a moment to compose himself.
"I'm having a hard time speaking right now. It was surprising to say the least," he said. "I saw him in my peripherals and I just had to hunker down the last few metres."
Bennett, who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of three, races in the S14 classification for athletes with an intellectual impairment.
Sister/coach watches on
His older sister Haley Bennett-Osborne, who has been his full-time coach since 2022, watched from the arena seats as her brother executed the work they'd done to improve his breaststroke.
"Right now, I'm tired, but during it was I was so excited I could barely watch," Bennett-Osborne said.
"He really clinched on the last 25 [metres]. That's what we've been working on the last year because that's where we thought he could improve on from Manchester when he got silver."
"Breaststroke is such a technical stroke, we thought it was really important to dial in how he was going to feel in that moment when there's lots of excitement, and its really emotional and he's super-tired, super-fatigued. Technique was everything that 25 metres."
WATCH | Bennett joins CBC Sports after 1st medal in Paris:
The siblings relocated from Vancouver Island to Red Deer, Alta., last year when Bennett-Osborne got a job coaching the Red Deer Catalina Swim Club at the Michener Recreation Centre.
"I don't think we have the typical sibling dynamic," Bennett said.
"She's always been quite responsible for her age and an amazing human being to say the least. It's just chemistry I guess. She's probably the only person I trust fully to get me to this point."
Osborne-Bennett, 24, echoed that trust is the key to the siblings making their coach-athlete relationship work.
"Especially with his designation, it's really important to have someone that understands his specific behaviours and training mentality," she said.
"I just think I know him really well, so it's easier for me."
400th gold medal for Canada
Also Monday, three-time Paralympian Sabrina Duchesne of St-Augustin, Que., finished sixth in the women's S7 400m freestyle final, while Nicolas Guy Turbide of Quebec City was seventh in the men's S13 50m freestyle and Canada placed eighth in the 34-point 4x100m mixed medley relay.
Canadians have won five medals in the pool in Paris. Swimming continues until Saturday.
Three years ago in Tokyo, Bennett made his Paralympic debut as the youngest athlete on Team Canada at 17 years old. While he did not reach the podium then, he told CBC Sports in March it was a vital learning experience.
"I just gained the feeling of how the call room works or how everybody kind of prepares for it and also how everybody races at that really, really high level just for that really short period of time," he said.
Bennett placed fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth across four races in Tokyo, lowering the national record in each one. A year later at worlds, he grabbed a pair of silver medals. At the 2023 world championships, he upgraded to two gold medals and one silver.
Now, he's a Paralympic champion — and he'll have two more chances to add more hardware when he swims the 200m individual medley on Wednesday and the 100m backstroke on Friday.
With files from CBC Sports
