Canada’s Dorris defends 50m butterfly title at world para swimming championships

Competitors dive from the starting blocks in the women's 100-metre freestyle S8 final at the World Para Swimming Championships in Mexico City, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

SINGAPORE — Canada’s Danielle Dorris defended her gold medal in the S7 50-metre butterfly Thursday at the world para swimming championships.

The 23-year-old from Moncton, N.B., finished in a championship-record time of 33.93 seconds, 32-hundredths of a second ahead of Mallory Weggemann of the United States.

Colombia’s Sara Vargas was third in 35.21 seconds.

“It feels fantastic. I’m really happy that I was able to defend my title once again,” said Dorris, who is also the reigning two-time Paralympic champion and world record holder in the event. “It’s always a lot of fun racing these girls. I couldn’t have asked for a better night.

“It definitely never gets old. I could see myself doing this for a few more years.”

Dorris’s third straight 50 butterfly world title comes a day after she finished second in the 100-metre backstroke, relinquishing the title she won in that event at the 2023 world championships in Manchester, England.

The gold highlighted Canada’s first three-medal day of the championships. Katie Cosgriffe of Burlington, Ont., and Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, B.C., claimed bronze in the women’s 100 fly S10 and the men’s 200 individual medley SM14, respectively.

Canada has two gold, one silver and five bronze medals entering the final two days of competition.

Dorris is the third Canadian in history to win the same event at three consecutive world championships.

Benoît Huot was crowned four straight times in the men’s 200 IM SM10 from 2002 to 2013, a feat matched by Aurélie Rivard in the women’s 50 and 100 free S10 from 2015 to 2023.

“Being able to be on par with people like Aurélie and Benoît is fantastic,” Dorris said. “I first met them when I was 13 going to my first Games in Rio, and here I am 10 years later, still going. It’s amazing.”

The 19-year-old Cosgriffe won her first world championship medal after swimming to third in the women’s 100 fly S10 final in an Americas-record time of one minute 6.28 seconds. The time was quicker than the gold-medal standard at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Defne Kurt of Turkey finished first in 1:03.91 to upset Britain’s Faye Rogers, the reigning Paralympic and defending world champion, who settled for silver in 1:03.94.

“I knew I had a shot at medalling going into this but I didn’t want to focus on the medal, Cosgriffe said. “I had a very good time (in the preliminaries) this morning and I knew I wanted to improve off of that, hopefully break the Americas record.”

In the men’s 200 IM SM14, Bennett settled for bronze after claiming gold at the Manchester worlds and the Paris Paralympics.

The 21-year-old posted 2:06.30, the third fastest of his career, but behind two swimmers — Brazil’s Gabriel Bandeira (2:05.40) and Britain’s Rhys Darbey (2:05.84) — who eclipsed his world-record time of 2:05.97 from the 2024 Canadian Trials.

“It stings a little bit, of course, to see my world record broken. But, you know, it just shows that there’s always room for improvement even when you’re at the top in your event,” said Bennett, who also claimed bronze in the 200 free earlier this week.

“Right now, it hurts a little. But as I’ve been saying in recent weeks, these championships are just a stepping-stone for the new Paralympic quad.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2025.