Canada’s Cody Fournie captures wheelchair racing Paralympic gold medal

When Cody Fournie was at a crossroads in his athletic career, he headed for the track.

The former national wheelchair rugby team player captured wheelchair racing gold Tuesday at the Paralympic Games in Paris.

The 35-year-old from Victoria won the men’s T51 200 metres for Canada’s second gold medal in Paris after Nicholas Bennett’s swimming gold the previous evening.

“During COVID I was in a transition period and not really knowing what I was going to do,” Fournie explained Tuesday.

“I didn’t know how much longer rugby was going to go for me. I just ran into someone and they directed me to coach Geoff (Harris) and everything else is history.”

Fournie posted the fastest 200 of his career with a time of 37.64 seconds.

“It feels really good. All I can say is the hard work, the nutrition and the hydration has paid off,” the Canadian said.

Silver medallist Toni Piispanen of Finland finished in 38.55 and bronze medallist Peter Genyn of Belgium in 38.65.

Fournie earned a silver medal in the 100 metres in May at the world para athletics championship in Kobe, Japan.

He competes in that race Friday at Stade de France.

“The 200 metres has always been a very difficult thing for me,” Fournie said. “My coach and I just kept working on it. During the first 100 metres of the 200 metres, we just worked on a different style of push and it paid off.

“It was just short spurts quickly and then I was able to get into my long strides.”

A quadriplegic since the age of 11, Fournie started playing wheelchair rugby in 2010 before switching to the track just over a decade later.

“The transition from rugby to racing helps because I was putting so much time and effort into training,” he said. “What was the most difficult part about racing was getting this chair figured out.

“With not having any stomach muscles, I had to use my head to change the direction of the chair and that took quite a while to figure out.”

Fournie’s medal was Canada’s third in track and field. Wheelchair racers Brent Lakatos won a silver medal and Austin Smeenk a bronze.