Two-time Paralympic champion Danielle Dorris earned Canada’s first medal to open the three-day Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, grabbing silver in the women’s 50-metre butterfly S5-7 final on Friday night in Walnut, Calif.
The Moncton, N.B. native led wire-to-wire and touched the wall first in 34.42 seconds after one length of the open-air pool at Mt. San Antonio College, less than a half-second off her 32.99 S7 world record.
But Katie Kubiak of the United States was awarded the gold medal after amassing 1,060 points to Dorris’s 941. In Friday’s morning preliminaries, Kubiak established a new world record for S5 of 37.21, almost a full second faster than her previous record.
Her teammate, Mallory Weggemann collected 926 points in the final for bronze.
Dorris claims Canada’s 1st medal of the Para Pan Pacific Championships
As a multi-class event that combines athletes from different physical, visual and intellectual impairments, winners of each race are decided by a mathematical points formula at Para Pan Pacs, not who touches the wall first.
“It’s pretty cool to have the first medal for Canada. It’s the first time it’s happened to me,” Dorris, one of Canada’s four captains at the competition, told Devin Heroux of CBC Sports. “I’m quite happy with that swim, considering how my year was going, [even though] it’s not the time I wanted.”
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Points are awarded based on how close a swimmer’s time is to the designated world record standard for their specific class. In other words, the closer the time is to the relevant record, the higher the points.
Dorris, who will turn 24 on Sept. 22, was born with underdeveloped arms, a condition known as bilateral radial dysplasia.
Danielle Dorris wins Canada’s first medal of the 2026 Para Pan Pacs
Dorris successfully defended her Paralympic title in the 50 fly two years ago at her third Games.
Later Friday night, she swam the opening leg of a Canadian record performance in the mixed 4×100 medley 34-point relay. Fernando Lu, Katie Cosgriffe and Reid Maxwell joined her on the podium for bronze with a time of four minutes 40.11 seconds.
The previous national mark was 4:42.32 from the 2023 World Para championships in Manchester, England. Cosgriffe was the only returning member from the previous record-setting team.
“This is my first time medalling internationally in a relay, so that’s super exciting,” she told Swimming Canada. “I was on that relay a couple of years ago when we broke the record, so to lower that mark once again is super exciting, especially with this group of amazing swimmers.”
A pair of Australian teams captured gold and silver.
Bronze medal captured and new national record set for Canada in mixed relay race
Tess Routliffe, who lives in Caledon, Ont., was sixth in a field of eight in the women’s 50 butterfly with Dorris, posting 791 points and a finishing time of 37.87.
At her second Paralympics in 2024, the 27-year-old claimed a pair of medals, including silver in the 200 individual medley SM7 and bronze in the 100 breaststroke SB7.
Routliffe was born with hypochondroplasia, a condition which affects the conversion of cartilage into bone, causing shortened limbs, or dwarfism.
Tess Routliffe is happy, healthy and looking ahead to LA 2028
In Friday’s men’s 50 fly S5-7 final, Toronto’s Sebastian Massabie recorded 837 points for bronze, behind Japan’s Eigo Tanaka (977) and Brazil’s Samuel de Oliveira (949).
Massabie, the S4 Olympic champion in the event in 2024, had the slowest time in the field of five on Friday at 36.07 seconds.
He broke six Canadian records and one world record at the 2024 Paralympic swimming trials.
The Surrey, B.C. resident has cerebral palsy which affects his left side.
Massabie adds a bronze medal for Canada at Para Pan Pacific Championships
Nicholas Bennett’s 981 points were good enough for silver behind Gabriel Bandeira (1,008) in the men’s 200 freestyle S2-5. The Brazilian also finished first in one minute 53.21 seconds, more than one second ahead of Bennett (1:55.44).
Jack Ireland of Australia was the bronze medallist with 977 points.
It was at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris where Bennett, at age 20, stepped into the spotlight, capturing his first medals at his second Games, including gold in the 100 breaststroke SB14 and 200 individual medley SM14 (Paralympic record: 2:06.05).
Nicholas Bennett earns bronze medal at 2025 Para swimming worlds
The Parksville, B.C., native added silver in the 200 free S14 (Canadian record: 1:53.61).
Bennett, now 22, was the only Canadian Para swimmer to win two gold medals in Paris and was named one of the team’s two flag-bearers for the closing ceremony. At three years old, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Bennett adds another silver medal in the pool for Canada
Ken Stroud of Richmond, B.C., who earned his spot on the Canadian national team earlier this summer, was second only to Akito Minai in the men’s 100 free S4-6, S8, S10, S12.
The Japanese athlete racked up 826 points, 35 more than Stroud, while Morgan Ray of the United States took bronze (736).
Stroud and 19 teammates were selected to compete in California based on their performance at the Canadian trials in July.
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This is the first Para Pan Pacs since 2018. The inaugural event was held in Edmonton in 2011, followed by Pasadena, Calif., three years later where Canada finished third in the medal standings. The squad was fourth eight years ago in Cairns, Australia.
“The Para Pan Pacs are another big step on the road to [Los Angeles and the 2028 Paralympics] and it’s the ideal spot to race under similar [warm] conditions to see what works,” Nicolas-Guy Turbide, another of the Canadian team’s captains, said in a Swimming Canada news release.
2026 Para Pan Pacific Swimming Championships: Day 1 finals
