Aurelie Rivard first came onto the swimming scene for Canada at the 2012 London Paralympic Games winning a silver medal in her debut. She was named Canada’s female para swimmer of the year by swimming Canada in 2014. Aurelie has a physical impairment in her left hand. At these Parapan Games, she was impressive winning five Gold and one silver medal. However she saved her best performance for last, swimming to a World Record in the Women’s 100 m Freestyle in a time of 59.17 seconds. It was truly amazing to be able to witness her performance in person
How does it feel to set a world record?
Actually I still can’t realize it right now, it took me awhile. It is perfect and I couldn’t ask for better, winning my first world record on home soil and in front this amazing crowd and my friends and family, it’s super great since I won’t see them tonight.
Has the Canadian crowd driven you to swim better?
I didn’t want the crowd to put pressure on me, I wanted to use it to make me swim faster, push me whenever I was tired and motivate me and it really did.
How has swimming enabled you?
Actually when I was younger I suffered from anxiety and panic attacks, so swimming played a big part of my life and gave me a lot self confidence and opportunities and it really changed my life completely and today I couldn’t ask for better.
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