Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: Team USA women win sitting volleyball gold, People’s Republic of China takes silver
Team USA has done it again, beating the People’s Republic of China 3-1 on Saturday, 7 September, day ten of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to win gold.
The crowd of over 4,000 spectators cheered on the women in the North Paris Arena, as Team USA won a third consecutive sitting volleyball gold medal in a repeat of the gold medal match from Tokyo 2020.
This match was not the first time the Americans had met China at Paris—the group stage match on 30 August, saw China emerge victorious over the USA, winning 3-1.
This hard-won victory saw the U.S. win the first set, then lose the second set to China to level at 1-1, before USA regained its momentum to see out the match for the final sets to take the win.
Heather Nicole Erickson, competing in her fifth Paralympic Games, was the main attacked for Team USA, scoring 28 points. Erickson now boasts three gold and two silver medals.
Team USA setter, Kaleo Okalani Kanahele said of this match, "We gave everything. We gave our love, we gave our support to each other. It's really, within our team, we gave it all. And I think whether we got gold in this or not, we're very proud of how much we've given, how much we've overcome."
Looking ahead she cautioned that the gold medal team would not be getting complacent ahead of LA 2028, saying, "It's really just going to be one year, one day at a time, and I couldn't imagine a better team to do it with."
Canada defeat Brazil for sitting volleyball bronze
The bronze medal match saw Canada beat Brazil 3 -0 to win a first Paralympic bronze medal for Canada in sitting volleyball. In a reversal of Tokyo 2020, where Canada and Brazil also met in the bronze medal match, with Brazil taking the medal.
Canada’s Heidi Peters, dominated scoring 18 points in attack. She was also named Best Server in the Dream Team roster. Peters said, “Today we just knew that we could do it. We were like, this is our time.
"And if we just show up and play our style of volleyball, serving tough and hitting the ball hard, the game will probably go our way. And it did.
"And now we're Paralympic bronze medallists. So it's, wow."