Swiss wins first gold at Paralympics

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In 10:43.62 minutes, Debrunner set a new Paralympic record. This is the second Paralympic gold medal of her career for the athlete from Thurgau, who held the world record in the 5,000 meters earlier this year. She won gold in the 400 meters in Tokyo.

Debrunner was overjoyed after her triumph. The silver medalist from the US, Susannah Scaroni, set an extremely fast pace. “I was always pretty much in the red zone. I then decided to stay in the slipstream for longer and then attack,” explained the former teacher, who has been fully committed to sport since 2022.

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After she and the American had broken away, the two rivals came to a small agreement. “She asked me if we could go fast together,” Debrunner said in the interview. From this point on, it was clear that the two of them would go for gold.

In addition to gold, Switzerland almost won another medal in the 5,000 meters. However, Patricia Eachus and Manuela Schär were narrowly beaten by Australia’s Madison de Rozario in the final sprint for bronze. In the end, the two Swiss women were just 0.24 and 0.32 seconds off the pace respectively. Schär is competing in her 6th Paralympics in Paris.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp