Sophie Pascoe's emotional 10th Paralympic gold is the latest in a steady medal haul by Kiwi women at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
As the Paralympic Games head down the home stretch, it's the New Zealand women - like their Olympic sisters - who are shining through on the medal table.
Six out of the Paralympic eight medals for the team of five million so far have been won by women. Will Stedman rounds out the New Zealand tally winning two medals within 24 hours of each other, a silver in the men's long jump and bronze in the 400m T36 on Tuesday.
But it was Tupou Neiufi who bagged New Zealand’s first gold in the pool; Sophie Pascoe's gold on Tuesday night her third medal of these Games to make it an unprecedented 18 in her own Paralympic medal collection; Lisa Adams picked up a Games record when she smashed her debut shot put final to take gold; and sprinter Danielle Aitchison ran away with silver at her first Paralympics.
Pascoe's victory in the 100m freestyle S9 final on Tuesday means she now has 10 gold medals in her career, another exclusive accomplishment for New Zealand's most decorated Paralympian. To make it even more special, when Pascoe touched the wall, she wasn't sure where she'd finished.
"Just to turn around and see the time was just relief, a massive relief," she said after her swim. "All I could think about before this race, is just going 'It's for the legacy', 'Do it for the kids to remember', 'Do it for everyone to be able to remember my career and what I've done for Para sport'. And just to do it for myself in those last few metres, I really wanted it. So to turn around to see it was incredible."
Four-time Paralympian Pascoe now has three medals from three events, out of her five possible shots at medals. She rounded out her first-ever full set with a winning time of 1m 02:37s, a gutsy effort from the 28-year-old, racing four events back-to-back in this second week of the Games.
She was a little slow off the blocks in the 100m free final, but by the 50m turn, Pascoe had a good lead and unlike in her 100m backstroke, she was able to hold on to the lead. Spaniard Sarai Gascon won silver and Brazilian Mariana Ribeiro, the bronze.
Pascoe broke into tears looking up at the scoreboard. She'd qualified for the final with the third-fastest time - less than 24 hours after her bronze in the backstroke. After collecting her medal from another Kiwi Paralympic legend, Duane Kale, she went straight into her recovery process to prepare for the 200m individual medley SM9 on Wednesday: "a massive one."
"It's the race that got me into Paralympic sport," she said. "There's a lot of history in that race, so tomorrow if it all pays off it could be a four-peat and I want to be able to do that."
All four female medallists in Tokyo have been influenced and driven by the support of their family. And they will need to take that energy into their remaining events in Tokyo.
Neiufi returns for the 50m freestyle S8 on Wednesday, while Nikita Howarth makes her first appearance at these Games in the 100m breaststroke SB7. Pascoe rounds out her demanding schedule with her strongest event, the 100m butterfly S9, on Thursday.
Aitchison will also see if she can bag another medal in the 100m T36 on Wednesday night. And Adams is set for the F38 discus event on Saturday (the last day of the Games).
Blade runner Anna Steven didn’t come away with a medal in the final of the 200m T64 on Tuesday night - finishing eighth - but the North Harbour Bays Athletics sprinter still celebrated her 21st birthday with a personal best time of 28.60s in the heat and set a new Oceania record. She's back on the track on Thursday for the 100m T64 heat.
Tupou Neiufi
Pascoe has dominated the pool across her 20-year career but her young teammate Neiufi made a big splash at her second Paralympics.
Her dominant performance in the 100m backstroke S8 event will surely inspire her on Wednesday in the 50m freestyle S8, even though it's not her usual event.
Neiufi didn’t let up in the 100m backstroke final, leading the whole way and eventually winning by nearly 1.5 seconds with a time of 1m 16.84.
The proud south Auckland swimmer credits her Tongan family’s love and support for pursuing her sporting goals and giving her best in all she does. Neiufi was hit by a car at the age of two which caused a traumatic brain injury and hemiplegia, paralysis to one side of her body. Her left side is smaller than the right and is not as strong. She picked up swimming when she was eight and hasn't looked back.
In 2018, Neiufi, the eldest of seven children, decided to leave Ōtāhuhu College in Auckland at the beginning of Year 12 to focus on swimming. Since then, her family have been making the commute from Māngere East to AUT Millennium on the North Shore nearly every day for (double) training sessions with coach Sheldon Kemp.
Five years ago at the Paralympic Games in Rio, the then 15-year-old was called into the New Zealand team late, and made the 100m backstroke final, finishing seventh.
The desire to improve and get better results was evident when Neiufi placed seventh in the 100m S9 backstroke event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The teen was disappointed with the result and wanted more.
The switch to full-time training started to pay dividends when Neiufi took out the silver medal in the 100m S8 backstroke final at the 2019 world championships in London, before the global pandemic put international racing on hold.
Lisa Adams
Lisa Adams adds her mark to the history books at her first Paralympic Games, as well as her family tree.
It was a world-record throw of 15.12m that will go down as Adams' gold medal result, but all six of her attempts were a good deal further than those of silver medallist, Mi Na from China.
The 30-year-old won New Zealand’s second gold medal in the F37 shot put on Saturday, following Neiufi’s achievement in the pool. Both athletes are proud to represent New Zealand as well as of their Tongan heritage and family.
For Adams, the victory was even more emotional as her sister and coach Dame Valerie Adams was in her corner at the Olympic Stadium - the same venue where she won an Olympic bronze medal just a month earlier.
Adams is one of 18 children. Alongside Dame Valerie, another sibling, Steven Adams, has been playing in the NBA for nearly 10 years so she is not short of inspiration at home. And her son, Hikairo, is Lisa’s motivation to continue giving her best so he knows to follow his dreams.
Shot put is a relatively new sport for Adams, who only started competing in 2018 after being identified from a news article when playing rugby by Athletics New Zealand coach Raylene Bates.
By 2019, she won her first world title in Dubai and will be wanting to achieve similar at the world Para athletics championship in 2022 - again in Japan. And then from there, only one more year until the Paris Paralympic Games.
Adams was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was one. She played netball and basketball growing up and in 2018 became the first woman to play in the New Zealand team at the physical disability rugby league Commonwealth championship. They came second and Adams was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Danielle Aitchison
Danielle Aitchison also made a historic impression in her first Paralympic Games when she won silver in the 200m T36 final on Sunday. She went into the Games ranked number one in the world, and won her heat earlier in the day.
It was an achievement Aitchison may not have thought possible in 2016 had it not been for her mother’s encouragement to try new things at different disability camps.
At that time, Aitchison had decided to finish playing team sport because of difficulties caused by her hearing impairment. Growing up she was involved in ballet, hockey and netball.
After steering away from team sport in 2016, sprinting became her new focus when she competed at the 2017 Halberg Disability Games. And by 2019, Aitchison was also on her way to the world Para athletics championship in Dubai with Adams.
She claimed the silver medal in the 200m T36 final and fourth in the 100m T36 event - an outstanding international debut which only inspired her to run faster for Tokyo.
Track and field women could win more medals at the Olympic Stadium towards the end of the week with Rio gold medallist long jumper Anna Grimaldi and javelin silver medallist Holly Robinson competing on Friday.
Cyclists Nicole Murray, Anna Taylor, Eltje Malzbender and Sarah Ellington will also have their final chances of bringing home a medal in the road races on Thursday and Friday.
