Aurélie Rivard came oh, so close to adding another gold medal to her collection on Sunday.

Unfortunatley for the world record holder, the Games are much different than at Tokyo in 2021, where the seats were empty due to COVID.

The Paris stands are jam-packed and in full frenzy at the 2024 Paralympics, and the crowd had their own Emeline Pierre to bring home for one of the swim meet’s biggest upsets — a gold medal over the Canadian heavy favourite in the 100m free (S10).

Rivard is known for making the turn at 50m in the pack, and then putting on a patented blazing finishing kick to pull away. This time, she had a 21-year-old emerging French star coming along in the lane to her right.

Pierre out-touched the Canadian at the wall, ending a two Paralympic gold medal run.

“I’m used to flipping fourth, fifth, sixth,” said a disappointed Rivard, to Swim Canada. It’s usually not an issue at the end of the race.

“I kind of blacked out in the last 50, so I don’t really know what happened. I should have done a much faster race.”

The St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., native took home silver with a time of 1:00.82, .33 seconds behind the winner’s 1:00.49.

“I’m dissapointed because I was looking forward to defending my title,” said the 28-year-old. “It will always be special to be on the podium for Canada and race in fornt of thousands of people, especially in front of my family.

“It’s hard to be sad being here with the crowd.”

Now swimming in her fourth Games, the Canadian has medalled in the 100m at three consecutive Paralympics. Even without being on top, these games will stand out to Rivard forever.

“I hated (Tokyo), how cold and intense it was. You could here the silence,” she said. “I’m cherishing this. We can hear the crowd even in the water.

“Being on the podium with a French girl in a stadium with French people made it so much more amazing.”