SANTIAGO, CHILE – Megan Gioffreda (Towson, Maryland) finally felt the sudden excitement of winning the first major gold medal of her career on the third day of swimming at the 2023 Parapan American Games Santiago.
From the surprise of seeing her name at the top of the leaderboard, to the realization that the roars in the crowd were for her, the new Parapan Am women’s 200m IM SM6 champion was soaking in the moment.
“I started feeling happy, tears — God, I was so surprised. That’s all I can say,” said Gioffreda, who added her bronze in the S6 100m backstroke. “This is such a great experience and I’m so grateful. Everything people have given me – my coaches, my amazing teammates, my staff here.”
The race went down to the wire and saw Gioffreda trail after the first 50 meter butterfly. But she found a way to make up time and beat runner-up Laila Suzigan of Brazil by 0.86 seconds.
“To be honest the fly, I wasn’t really feeling well,” he added. “I came out, I was breathing, I was like, ‘Oh jeez, I’ve got three more rounds of this.’ … But my backstroke and breaststroke felt extremely good.”
The S9 women’s 100m butterfly results could also have gone either way—and they went in Cali Prochaska’s (Fort Wayne, Ind.) favor, finishing one second ahead of Argentina’s Parapan Am silver medalist Daniela Gimenez. Monday’s win looked like redemption for Prochaska after missing out on the podium at the 2019 Lima Parapan American Games in the same event.
“This is a race I swam in the last block in Lima. I was fourth,” remembers Prochaska. “(Today) I went out and touched the wall, so it’s really good to be able to get there first and see how the practice went in that last block.”
Taylor Winnett (Carlsbad, Calif.) won her third medal of the event and nearly her second gold as she chased down Colombia’s Maria Barrera in the final 100 meters of the S10 women’s 400m freestyle. The crowd roared until the final second, when Winnett learned she was just 0.33 seconds away from gold.
“I knew I was going to have to shut it down for the last 100,” Winnett said. “Honestly, that’s how I like to fight. I like to push myself. Coming in, I was third or fourth, so knowing I had to fight for it made it really fun.”
Winnett’s compatriot Michaela Jenkins (Evansville, Ind.) rounded out the podium — a result she was pleased to arrive in Santiago yesterday afternoon due to school.
“I’m really happy with it,” said the two-time Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion. “I’m in the middle of the college swimming season, so we’re in the middle of the swimming season. We are all as a team very, very tired. I’m majoring in molecular biology and chemistry with a pre-med track and I’m in the middle of applying to medical school,” Jenkins explained.
Having been disappointed by his performance in the 50m backstroke S5 the previous day, Abbas Karimi (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) turned it around quickly on Monday to take bronze in the butterfly.
“(I told myself) the reason why I became a swimmer and (the reason for) this journey I took on myself, and where I came from,” said Karimi, who holds the silver medal in this event from 2017. “It came from swimming. I made it this far and it all came from swimming.”
David Gelfand (Weston, Connecticut) was able to spoil a Brazilian sweep in the men’s S9 100m butterfly to take bronze and add to his silver from yesterday’s 200m IM.
“The plan was I just had to be really strong coming out and then just stay with the pack, stay right there, and the turn just attack and keep the beat, keep the consistency, keep it as best as I can and I’m doing everything I can to get it back on the podium,” Gelfand said.
The competition resumes on Tuesday (November 21) at 9am. local time with the fourth day of preliminaries. All sessions will be streamed live on Pan Am Sports Channel. Follow USA Paralympic Swimming Facebook, Twitterand Instagram for updates and results throughout the contest, which runs until November 25.
For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Paralympic Communication at paralympic.communications@usopc.org.
USA Team Medals – November 20th
GOLD
Megan Gioffreda – Women’s 200m IM SM6
Cali Prochaska – Women’s 100m Butterfly S9
SILVER
Taylor Winnett – Women’s S10 400m Freestyle
BRONZE
Mikaela Jenkins Women’s 400m Freestyle S10
Abbas Karimi – Men’s 50m Butterfly S5
David Gelfand – Men’s 100m Butterfly S9
Results of other US teams:
Haven Shepherd – 4uWomen’s 100m Breaststroke SB7
Trevor Lukacso – 4uMen’s 100m Breaststroke SB14
Haven Shepherd – 4uWomen’s 100m Butterfly S8
Jeff Lovett – 5uMen’s 100m Breaststroke SB14
Chloe Cederholm – 5uWomen’s 400m freestyle S10
Braxton Wong – 5umen’s 100m butterfly S9
Abigail Kershaw – 8uWomen’s 100m Breaststroke SB14
Elise Morley – 6uWomen’s 100m Butterfly S9
Carson Brunner – 8umen’s 100m butterfly S9