Canadian para swimmer Shelby Newkirk opened her Paralympic Games on Thursday by just missing the podium in the women’s 50m freestyle final (S6).
The Saskatoon native, 28, put in a 34.08 to finish behind gold medalist Yuyan Jiang of China, America’s Ellie Marks, and Ukraine’s Anna Hontar.
Jiang set a Paralympic record of 32.59 seconds. Marks recorded an Americas record of 32.90 seconds, and Hontar’s time was 33.01 seconds.
Newkirk posted the fourth fastest qualifying time at 34.15 seconds.
“I can give it my all, I can do my absolute best but it all comes down to how everybody else did,” said the 28-year-old, in an interview with Swim Canada. “Today we had three amazing women that just happened to go faster.”
Before qualifying for her second Paralympics, she set the world record for the 50m backstroke at a World Series stop in Indianapolis in May. In the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, Newkirk set Canadian records in every event in which she entered.
She finished fourth in the women’s 100m backstroke and also set national marks in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle.
Newkirk’s next and final event of the 2024 Paralympics will be the Women’s 100m backstroke on Sept. 6.
