Aurélie Rivard
Canadian Paralympic swimmer
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Aurélie Rivard (born May 14, 1996) is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer.[1] After winning three Paralympics gold medals, claiming a silver Paralympic medal and setting two World Records and a Paralympic Record at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she was named Canada's flag-bearer for the closing ceremony.[2]
Rivard won five medals at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.[3][4]
Career
Rivard is from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, where she trained at the Club de natation du Haut-Richelieu. In 2017 she moved to Montreal and began training with Canada's High Performance Center.[5] She took up competitive swimming in 2008; with an impairment in her left hand she competes in the S10, SB9 and SM10 disability classifications.[1] She currently holds three World Records in her category.
Rivard competed at the 2010 IPC Swimming World Championships but did not win any medals. At the 2012 London Paralympics she entered six events[1] and won silver in the S10 400 m freestyle.[6] She won five medals at the 2013 World Championships including two silver, two bronze[1] and joint second place in the 200 m medley.[7] At the 2014 Commonwealth Games she won bronze in the 200 m individual medley.[8]
In 2014 Swimming Canada named Rivard "Female Para-Swimmer of the Year".[9]
At the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto, Canada, Rivard, who was 19 at the time, became the most decorated female athlete of Parapan Am history, after winning seven medals, six of which were gold.[10]
