swim
The German swimmer Verena Schott from BPRSV Cottbus seized her chance for a medal at the Paralympics on Thursday (August 26th, 2021) and surprisingly won the bronze medal in the 200 m individual medley.
The 32-year-old Schott struck after 2: 59.09 minutes, improving her lead time by over five seconds. The British girl Maisie Summers-Newton swam for gold, who also improved the world record again. The Ukrainian Jelysaveta Mereschko had set the record in the run-up to 2: 56.90 minutes and was therefore considered the favorite for the gold medal. But Summers-Newton reduced the time again by two tenths of a second to 2: 56.68 min.
Schott: “We have had tough years behind us”
“My emotional world is a bit mixed up. I could just cry all the time. I’m mega-happy and mega-relieved,” said Schott. “Maybe that will give the other upswing as well. We have all had tough years.” In 2016 in Rio, the German swimmers only won three medals, none of them gold.
The incompletely paraplegic Schott was only one of the underdogs in this final in the Aquatics Center, despite her convincing prelude performance, but: In 2016 she had already finished fourth in the 200 m medley at the Paralympics in Rio 2016. She won silver in London in 2012.
Also chances over 100 m chest
The student had actually calculated the best chance for a medal in Tokyo on the 100 m chest on Saturday (08/28/2021). Born in Greifswald, she was world champion in 2015 and vice-world champion in 2019 on this route and was also fourth in Rio. She is also one of the favorites over the 100 m back, winning World Cup gold in 2019.
On Wednesday (August 25th, 2021) Schott started the Paralympic swimming competitions over 50 m freestyle clearly missed the final.
First gold medal for Japan
After a few days of waiting, hosts Japan were also able to celebrate their first gold medal on the fourth day of the Paralympic Games. Swimmer Takayuki Suzuki didn’t give the competition a chance over 100 meters freestyle in class S4 and took victory.
The Italian Francesco Bocciardo had previously triumphed over the same distance in class S5. The Brazilian Daniel Dias swam in third place in this race and won his 26th Olympic medal – 14 of them are made of gold.