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Rio-2016

Death at Paralympics

An Iranian cyclist died after crashing in a road race at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics on Saturday.

He was Bahman Golbarnezhad, aged 48, the International Paralympics Committee said.

It said he received emergency treatment on the course and was transported to a Rio hospital where officials said he died.

"This is truly heart-breaking news, and the thoughts and condolences of the whole Paralympic Movement are with Bahman's family, friends, and teammates, as well as the whole of the National Paralympic Committee of Iran," IPC President Philip Craven said in a statement.

The IPC said it believes this is the first death in a Paralympics.

The IPC said Golbarnezhad crashed about 10:40 a.m. local time on a mountainous stretch of the road cycling course. The IPC said he suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.

The cause of the crash was not clear, and officials said it was being investigated.

"The Paralympic family is united in grief at this horrendous tragedy, which casts a shadow over what have been great Paralympic Games," Craven added.

The Iranian flag was lowered to half-staff in the Paralympic Village, and at the venue where Iran faces Bosnia and Herzegovina in a men's sitting volleyball final on Sunday.

A moment of silence will also be held at Sunday's closing ceremony in Maracana Stadium.





Paralympian ready to die

Marieke Vervoort lives with nearly unbroken pain. The Belgian has an incurable, degenerative spinal disease, sleeps only 10 minutes some nights, and in 2008 she signed euthanasia papers so she can decide when to end her own life.

The 37-year-old Paralympian is prepared to die, but not now. Back home, newspapers have been reporting the wheelchair racer intends to kill herself after the Paralympics end next weekend.

"I think there is a great mistake about what the press told in Belgium," Vervoort said Sunday, speaking in English and surrounded by reporters wanting to hear her compelling story.

"This is totally out of the question," she added. "When the day comes, when I have more bad days than good days — I have my euthanasia papers. But the time is not there yet."

This is Vervoort's last Paralympics. She won silver Saturday night in the T52 400 metres, adding to the gold and silver medals she won four years ago in London. Her last wheelchair race will be Saturday at 100 metres.

She's shown her will to live by tackling tough training, and it's also helped keep her alive. But she has to give it up, as she has other things, as her body has broken down.

Her pain is so severe at times that she loses consciousness, and she said the sight of her in pain has caused others to pass out.

"It's too hard for my body," Vervoort said. "Each training I'm suffering because of pain. Every race I train hard. Training and riding and doing competition are medicine for me. I push so hard — to push literally all my fear and everything away."

Vervoort is a strong advocate of the right to choose euthanasia, which is legal in Belgium. Like training hard, she said it gives her the control and "puts my own life in my hands."

"I'm really scared, but those (euthanasia) papers give me a lot of peace of mind because I know when it's enough for me, I have those papers," she said.

"If I didn't have those papers, I think I'd have done suicide already. I think there will be fewer suicides when every country has the law of euthanasia. ... I hope everybody sees that this is not murder, but it makes people live longer."

Vervoort said getting the papers was difficult, requiring examinations by several doctors who looked at her mental and physical state. She said it's not like having the flu.

"You only get those papers when there is no way back," she said.



Paralympic silver in the pool

Canadian swimmer Aurelie Rivard added to her Paralympic medal collection on Sunday, capturing silver in the women's 200-metre individual medley.

The 20-year-old from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., had claimed Canada's first gold medal of the Games two nights earlier, winning the 50 freestyle in a world record time.

Rivard, who was born with an underdeveloped left hand, touched the wall in two minutes 30.03 seconds on Sunday night, to finish behind New Zealand's Sophie Pascal. Pascal won in a world record 2:24.90.

Paralympic veteran Benoit Huot narrowly missed adding a second swim medal on the night, finishing fourth in the 200 I.M.

Huot won the gold medal in the event four years ago in London in a world record time.

At the track, Canadian wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos captured a silver medal in the 400 metres for his second medal of the Rio Paralympics. Liam Stanley added a second medal on the morning for the Canadian track team, racing to silver in the 1,500 metres.

In rowing, Canada won bronze in the LTA mixed coxed four. Britain won gold in 3:17.17, the U.S. was second in 3:19.61 and the Canadians with Victoria Nolan, Meghan Montgomery, Andrew Todd, Curtis Halladay and coxswain Kristen Kit followed in 3:19.90.

"We came back on the U.S. in a big way," said Montgomery, 34, who has a disability in her right hand. "We got from the stern to just being a bow ball away from silver. It was a good race."

Montgomery is a three-time Paralympian who retired after the London Games but made a comeback in 2015.

"This year was about fighting to get back into the boat," she said. "That was a big part of us doing so well today. We had a competitive environment in the boat."

In women's wheelchair basketball, the Canadian women lost their first game after opening with two victories. They fell to Germany 68-54 despite a 23-point effort by Cindy Ouellet.

Canada has 12 medals — three gold, six silver and two bronze — so far in Rio.





Triathlon silver for Canada

For five kilometres, Stefan Daniel ate up the ground on his competition along Copacabana Beach.

But 5K wouldn't be enough, and the 19-year-old from Calgary wound up with silver Saturday in the inaugural triathlon at the Rio Paralympics.

Daniel was fourth when he hopped off his bike, nearly two minutes behind leader Martin Schulz of Germany. But he made up massive ground with a terrific run portion, crossing the finish line in one hour three minutes and five seconds.

Schulz won the gold in 1:02.37.

"I was lucky to have the run legs today," Daniel said. "I was in a podium position coming off the bike, so I had to earn every spot that I could. But Martin was too far up the road, he beat me fair and square, he was better today. But I gave it everything I could, I was lucky to get the silver."

Spain's Jairo Ruiz Lopez was third.

Daniel was born with bilateral radial club hands, and his right forearm significantly shorter than his left, and so the swim is his weakness. His strong running allows him to compete in able-bodied triathlons — he beat a field of able-bodied athletes to win the Canadian junior title last year — plus he runs cross-country for the University of Calgary's track team.

"I knew I'd have the run (to make up ground Saturday), but unfortunately I just ran out of real estate," he said.

He had his sights set on Paralympic gold after beating the 26-year-old Schulz to win the para-triathlon world championships last September.

But Daniel, who was the youngest athlete in the field, surely has a long career ahead of him.

"We're dealing with a man versus boy scenario," said his coach Carolyn Murray. "We know in Tokyo (in 2020), Daniel will be a man. But Schulz had a phenomenal race. "He just put it down on the bike and I have to give him a lot of credit."

While triathlon made its Olympic debut in 2000 in Sydney, where Canada's Simon Whitfield claimed gold, this was the inaugural Paralympic event. Saturday, athletes swam 750 metres in the choppy waters off Copacabana beach, cycled 20 kilometres and ran 5K in the same venue that hosted the Olympic triathlon last month.



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Rio 2016 Medal Count
CountryGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1United States463738121
2China26182670
3Great Britain27231767
4Russia19181956
5Germany17101542
6France10181442
7Japan1282141
8Australia8111029
9Italy812828
10Canada431522


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