France., Brazilian para-swimming star Gabriel dos Santos Araujo, nicknamed ‘Gabrielzinho’, won his long-awaited treble of gold at the Paris Paralympic Games on Monday, after winning the 200-metre freestyle S2 category.
The 22-year-old para-athlete, who has stumps in his shoulders and atrophied legs, finished the race in 3 min 58 sec 92 at the Arena La Défense, ahead of Russian Vladimir Danilenko (4 min 14 sec 16) and Chilean Alberto Abarza (4 min 22 sec 18).
“I came to Paris looking for three gold medals and I achieved this goal, so I am very happy,” she told reporters after the event.
This medal adds to the other two titles he has won so far in the current Paralympic event, one in the 50-meter backstroke on Saturday and another in the 100-meter backstroke on Thursday.
At the Tokyo Games, dos Santos won two gold medals and one silver medal.
As usual, the swimmer, a favourite of the French public, celebrated his victory at the top of the podium with a little dance.
“It’s also a way to represent my country, I dance for Brazilians, to make them happy. I also want to see people dance in Paris,” added the young man.
The Brazilian flag bearer, who has almost 250,000 followers on Instagram, suffers from phocomelia, a malformation caused by the arrest of development of one or more limbs during pregnancy.
The athlete began competing in his teens, when a teacher signed him up for a school tournament at the age of 13, without telling his parents.
To swim, he moves through the water like a dolphin, with pelvic movements, a technique developed during long training sessions six times a week in the Juiz de Fora pool in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
On Friday, he will compete in his final event at the Paris Games, where he will face swimmers in the S3 category, i.e. those with slightly milder disabilities than his own.
“I’m just going to compete for fun,” he told reporters.
On Sunday he competed in the 150m medley event against S3 swimmers, finishing fourth.
#gold #Brazilian #swimmer #Gabrielzinho #Paralympics
– 2024-09-04 22:29:03
