Catherine Debrunner wins her fourth medal in the 100 m at the Paris Paralympics. The fact that she isn't golden this time doesn't bother her at all.
It's an unusual picture. Catherine Debrunner is not the first to cross the finish line of a final on Wednesday evening. The athlete from Thurgau finished second in the 100 m behind Great Britain's Samantha Kinghorn. She had already beaten the Swiss athlete over the sprint distance a year ago at the World Championships in the Stade Charléty in Paris. Now Kinghorn has set a Paralympic record of 15.64 seconds. Something that Debrunner had also achieved on the way to her three gold medals in the 5000 m, 1500 m and 800 m. And in such a dominant manner that it seemed almost natural to see the athlete from eastern Switzerland in the lead.
But Debrunner is not crestfallen as she rolls off the track towards the dressing room. "I'm very pleased with how it went," she says. What she had set out to do worked out well. "Samantha was simply faster." In general, Debrunner is keen to put her previous performances into context and lower her expectations accordingly. "You can't expect me to just win all the time. That's not realistic."
Used to struggle at major events
In addition, the 100 m is not a distance at which she feels extremely comfortable. Especially at major events, she has always struggled to finish at the front in this discipline in the past. "That's why it really couldn't have gone any better."
Her last race on the track is scheduled for Thursday in the 400m. There will be no 24-hour break. But Debrunner is taking it easy. "Everyone is getting tired. I'm looking forward to being able to compete once again in this great stadium in this great atmosphere." It is a distance at which Debrunner feels very comfortable. She won her first Paralympic gold medal in this race in Tokyo three years ago. But the Swiss athlete doesn't want to dwell on her potential fourth gold: "I'm enjoying this silver medal now. This is anything but a given."
