Canadian Paralympic champion Danielle Dorris secured Canada’s first medal at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships by winning silver in the women’s 50-meter S5-7 final in Walnut, California. Dorris, a native of Moncton, New Brunswick, led the race from start to finish, clocking a time of 34.42 seconds, just shy of her S7 world record of 32.99 seconds. Despite her performance, the gold medal went to Katie Kubiak of the United States, who accumulated 1060 points compared to Dorris’s 941 points. Kubiak set a new world record for S5 during the morning preliminaries with a time of 37.21 seconds.
In the multi-class event that includes athletes with various impairments, the winners are determined based on a points system rather than race times. Points are awarded depending on how close a swimmer’s time is to the world record standard for their specific class. Dorris, who was born with bilateral radial dysplasia, will celebrate her 24th birthday on September 22. She has a remarkable record in the sport, having won medals in various events at World Para championships and Paralympic Games over the years.
In the men’s 50-meter S5-7 final, Sebastian Massabie from Toronto claimed the bronze medal with 837 points, following Japan’s Eigo Tanaka and Brazil’s Samuel de Oliveira. Massabie, the S4 Olympic champion in 2024, set multiple records at the 2024 Paralympic swimming trials despite having cerebral palsy that affects his left side.