Day one of competition in the pool at the Paris Paralympic Games will feature Saskatoon’s Shelby Newkirk competing in the 50m freestyle today. The world record holder in the event finished fourth in the Tokyo Games but is a gold medal favourite today. Newkirk joined the Sportscage from France and says she knows the expectation, “I have big goals, for sure. I feel I control my performance, my race and I’m going to put my heart out there to have the best race I can.”
The 28-year-old is entering the games with momentum, “I’ve been a World Champion the past couple of years, and I just broke a world record this year. So, I think it’s been going really well.”
Newkirk’s international resume dates back to 2017, when she joined the national team and that experience is going to help her as well as her teammates, “I think it really cool to be able to work with all these newcomers and kind of show them the ropes while also going in and trying to have the best performance I can.”
Newkirk will also compete in the S6 100m backstroke at the games.
