Heavy rain fell over Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium Thursday night as Jessica Frotten placed eighth in her final individual event at the Paralympic Games.
The native of Whitehouse, Yukon managed to qualify for the final of the women’s T53 400-metre race after finishing fourth in the preliminary heat with a time of 59.98 seconds, but couldn’t keep the pace and came last in the final, putting down a 1:02.16.
After a strong 2019 season, Frotten expected to do better in all three of her competitions (800-, 1500- and 400-metre), although she’s still glad to have experienced her first-ever Paralympics.
“I feel like I had more in me and I wish I could have put a little more out there, but I’m still super happy with it,” she said after the race. “It is so wet I was slipping a little on the back corner, so that makes it slower too.”
The 33-year-old’s positive attitude toward her performance becomes even more remarkable when considering all the adversities she faced in 2020.
In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic putting limitations on her training and cancelling most of her international competitions, her racing wheelchair was stolen from a garage in Regina. The time it took to get a new model fit for her compromised a good portion of her preparation.
Despite those difficulties, Frotten has been enjoying her time at Tokyo as much as possible and will now represent Canada in the 4×100-metre universal relay on Friday.
“I’m super excited about tomorrow. I think we have a super strong team,” she said. “It’s quite exciting to watch because, depending on your lineup, the lead can change all the time. It’s anybody’s race.”