Two-time Paralympic gold medalist Danielle Dorris secured Canada’s initial medal at the commencement of the three-day Pan Pacific Swimming Championships by clinching the silver in the women’s 50-meter butterfly S5-7 final on Friday evening in Walnut, California. Hailing from Moncton, New Brunswick, Dorris maintained the lead throughout and finished first in 34.42 seconds after covering one length of the open-air pool at Mt. San Antonio College, just shy of her S7 world record of 32.99.
Despite Dorris touching the wall first, the gold medal went to Katie Kubiak of the United States, who accumulated 1,060 points compared to Dorris’s 941. During the morning preliminaries on Friday, Kubiak set a new world record for S5 with a time of 37.21, nearly a second faster than her previous record. Dorris’s teammate, Mallory Weggemann, secured the bronze with 926 points in the final.
At the Para Pan Pacific Championships, winners of each race are determined using a points system based on how close a swimmer’s time is to the designated world record standard for their specific category, rather than who finishes first. Dorris, who will celebrate her 24th birthday on September 22, was born with bilateral radial dysplasia, a condition characterized by underdeveloped arms.
Expressing her satisfaction, Dorris, one of Canada’s four captains at the event, shared with CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux, “It’s pretty cool to have the first medal for Canada. It’s the first time it’s happened to me. I’m quite happy with that swim, considering how my year was going, [even though] it’s not the time I wanted.”
Dorris also defended her Paralympic title in the 50-meter butterfly two years ago at her third Games. Later that Friday night, she contributed to a Canadian record in the mixed 4×100 medley 34-point relay by swimming the opening leg. The team, comprising Fernando Lu, Katie Cosgriffe, and Reid Maxwell, secured the bronze with a time of four minutes 40.11 seconds, surpassing the previous national record from the 2023 World Para Championships in Manchester, England.
Tess Routliffe, residing in Caledon, Ontario, finished sixth in the women’s 50 butterfly along with Dorris, amassing 791 points with a completion time of 37.87. At her second Paralympics in 2024, the 27-year-old Routliffe claimed silver in the 200 individual medley SM7 and bronze in the 100 breaststroke SB7. She was born with hypochondroplasia, a condition affecting bone development.
In the men’s 50 butterfly S5-7 final, Sebastian Massabie from Toronto earned the bronze with 837 points, following Japan’s Eigo Tanaka (977) and Brazil’s Samuel de Oliveira (949). Massabie, the S4 Olympic champion in 2024, recorded the slowest time in the field on Friday at 36.07 seconds. He had previously set six Canadian records and one world record at the 2024 Paralympic swimming trials. Massabie, a resident of Surrey, British Columbia, has cerebral palsy affecting his left side.
Nicholas Bennett secured the silver with 981 points in the men’s 200 freestyle S2-5, trailing behind Gabriel Bandeira (1,008). Bennett, a native of Parksville, British Columbia, won gold in the 100 breaststroke SB14 and 200 individual medley SM14 at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. Bennett, now 22, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at three years old.
Ken Stroud from Richmond, British Columbia, finished second in the men’s 100 free S4-6, S8, S10, S12, behind Japan’s Akito Minai and ahead of Morgan Ray from the United States. Stroud and 19 other teammates were chosen to compete in California based on their performance at the Canadian trials in July.
This year’s Para Pan Pacific Championships mark the return of the event since 2018. The inaugural competition took place in Edmonton in 2011, followed by Pasadena, California, in 2014 where Canada ranked third in the medal standings. The team secured the fourth position eight years ago in Cairns, Australia. Nicolas-Guy Turbide, another Canadian team captain, highlighted the significance of the Para Pan Pacs as a stepping stone towards the upcoming 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles.
