Simply days after successful Canada’s first gold medal on the 2024 Paralympic Video games in para athletics, Victoria’s Cody Fournie discovered himself again atop the rostrum on Friday night time. Fournie gained his 2d gold of the Video games within the males’s T51 100m, environment a brand new Paralympic file of nineteen.63 seconds.
TWICE AS NICE FOR CODY! 🥇🥇
Cody Fournie smashes the sphere to win his 2d Gold Medal of @Paris2024, successful the Males’s 100m T51 in a Paralympic file!#GreatnessMovesUs #Paris2024 %.twitter.com/0rsiZAb653
— Canadian Paralympic Staff (@CDNParalympics) September 6, 2024
This victory now not handiest marked Fournie’s 2d gold, but additionally set a brand new Canadian T51 file. His fulfillment introduced Canada’s para athletics medal tally to seven, together with 4 golds.
Previous within the week, the 35-year-old athlete clinched gold within the T51 males’s 200m, crossing the road in a private best possible of 37.64 seconds.
Fournie’s trail to turning into a Canadian Paralympic megastar isn’t a marvel. He has been a aggressive wheelchair athlete maximum of his lifestyles, competing for the Canadian nationwide para rugby group earlier than transitioning to wheelchair racing all the way through the pandemic. He made up our minds to change to para athletics after a turning level in his rugby occupation left him unsure about his long run. With steering from former Canadian Olympian Geoff Harris, Fournie has embraced wheelchair racing, and the verdict has paid off together with his Paralympic gold medal depend emerging to 2.
This was once Cody Fournie’s first ever Paralympic race — and he took house the #Gold for 🇨🇦
Congratulations, Cody! 🥇
%.twitter.com/ch00nO5vQd— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) September 3, 2024
Previous this 12 months, Fournie gained a silver medal within the T51 100m on the International Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan. The T51 classification comprises athletes with quite a lot of disabilities, together with spinal twine accidents and cerebral palsy. Fournie was a quadriplegic following an coincidence at age 11.
The Paralympic Video games will proceed till Sunday, Sept. 8.