Paralympian Wins Silver Medals

University of Victoria student Brianna Nelson will return to classes with some great stories from her summer, including how she won a pair of medals at the 2012 London Paralympics.

Nelson, 20, won silver in the 50m butterfly and the 200m S7 individual medley, in which she set a new Canadian record of 3:04.60. Nelson, who is studying psychology and history, competed in four other events at the 2012 Games, finishing seventh in both the 4x100m freestyle relay and 100m freestyle, and eighth in the 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke.

She also competed in six events at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, with her best performance a sixth-place finish in the 100m backstroke. Nelson was born with cerebral palsy, which affects the right side of her body.

Other athletes with UVic connections at the 2012 Paralympics, which close Sunday, Sept. 9, include wheelchair basketball players Jessica Vliegenthart, a UVic law grad, and former UVic Vike Janet McLachlan, as well as Tim Rees, a postdoctoral research fellow at UVic’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences who competes in judo.

The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team finished 3-1 in the preliminary round and secured a berth in the quarterfinals. McLachlan set new career bests with 36 points and 23 rebounds in a 65-51 win over Brazil. Rees suffered a loss in his first match and did not move on.

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