Faye Rogers Wins Paralympic Gold on her Games Debut and it’s a Second Silver for Sammi in Paris.
Faye Rogers produced a stunning swim in the pool on day six of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
The 21-year-old put in a terrific performance in the women’s 100m butterfly S10 to take the title of Paralympic champion on her Games debut.
Faye made her intentions clear in the morning, when she clocked 1:05.92 in the heats – just 0.5 off her own European Record.
Whilst the final was harder work, the Scot backed herself as she turned for the final 50m in second place behind teammate Callie-Ann Warrington. She edged ahead with 25m to go and touched the wall first with a time of 1:05.84.
In 2021 she was involved in a car accident which squashed her Olympic dreams. Nearly three years to the day since that accident, she can now call herself a Paralympic champion.
“It’s a big full circle moment and I couldn’t be prouder of how far I’ve come. I couldn’t have asked for more from the last three years”, said Faye.
She went on to say: “Coming into Para sport has been the best thing, I couldn’t be more grateful for this journey and I have learned so much about myself. I’ve started getting messages off people in similar situations and it makes me so proud and grateful that my experiences are helping other people. There are so many people who could benefit from Para sport, it’s just amazing.”
“There are always days it feels like it’s never going to get any better but it does. There’s always a way to adapt to stuff and overcome stuff. I’ve found over the last three years there’s nothing I can’t do, it might just look a little bit different, and that’s absolutely OK. It has been such a whirlwind and I couldn’t be happier.”
Meanwhile on the Para athletics track – Sammi Kinghorn stormed to silver in the women’s 1500m T54, to claim the first of the two medals won today (3rd).
It’s a second silver for the Scot in Paris, adding to her 800m T53 medal won on Sunday 1st.
“Who would have thought a sprinter would get a medal over 1500m, I certainly did not. I thought I’d be jostling for fourth, maybe squeeze a third”, said Sammi.
The wheelchair racer clocked a time of 3:16.01 to seal the silver.
The 28-year-old said: “I kinda got a bit disorientated and I stopped at 200m to go because I thought we were done – it’s so loud in here which we’re not used to. So I learned I need to count laps. But that noise is absolutely electric and I’m absolutely buzzing to come away with a medal.”
Sammi continued to say, “You really just have to put yourself out there – there’s some strong, strong athletes in there. To beat Susanna [Scaroni, bronze medallist] has blown my mind and to be able to sit on the back wheel of Catherine is incredible.”
Teammate Melanie Woods put in a superb effort in a packed final to finish eighth with a time of 3:23.37. The 30-year-old from Glasgow, sang her teammates praises after the race:
“I train with Sammi so much throughout the year and to see her hard work turn into medals is so exciting and gives me hope that I can make the podium one day. It’s inspirational to see what she’s achieving out there.”
Gordon Reid and partner Alfie Hewett came head-to-head with the Netherlands Ruben Spaargaren and Maarten Ter Hofte in the men’s wheelchair tennis doubles.
Games were close and fiercely contested but Gordon and Alfie rallied through to secure the win, 6-2, 6-1.
“We came out firing right from the start and we produced some of our best stuff at the beginning of the match. That settled us down early and in the second set they raised their level and tested us a lot more. There were a lot of long games that we came out on top of and it was a really good test going into the next match”, said Gordon.
Day seven will be particularly busy for the 32-year-old Scot as he will compete in both the men’s singles quarterfinal and doubles seminfinal.
The current order of play sees him playing his singles semifinal against Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez at 11am BST, before he joins Alfie to play the doubles semifinal against home favourites Stephane Houdet and Frederic Cattaneo in the late afternoon.
On facing the French, the Scot commented: “We’re just really excited to come up against them. It was one of our dreams before the tournament to come up against the local favourites. We’ve got big singles matches first in the morning to deal with but once they’re over with, we’ll be ready to go.”
Stephane Houdet was in the men’s doubles pair that won gold at both the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, defeating Gordon and Alfie in both finals. Both Gordon and Alfie will be hoping that it’ll be third time lucky for them in Paris.
It was a tough start for the mixed team BC1/BC2, who suffered a 13-1 loss in their opening pool game against the People’s Republic of China. The mixed team, who is made up of Scotland’s Kayleigh Haggo, Claire Taggart and David Smith, had the challenge of resetting and refocusing before they took on Portugal in the evening pool match.
The trio produced the goods in a tightly fought game, winning 5-4 to advance to tomorrow’s quarterfinals where they will play Indonesia at 11:50am.
“It was really nerve-wracking, especially after the result this morning, so I’m so happy we got the win”, said Kayleigh following the win.
The Paris 2024 Paralympics runs from the 28th August – 8th September. You can follow all the action and find out how the 21 Scottish Para athletes get on by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website. You can catch all the action on Channel 4. More information here.