Paris 2024: ‘Flying Fish’ Jiang Yuyan secures 7th Para swimming gold

China's Jiang Yuyan, known as the ‘Flying Fish’, secured her final gold of Paris 2024 in the women's 100m backstroke S6 final, finishing ahead of reigning champion Ellie Marks of the USA in La Defense Arena pool.

"I feel so proud. The whole Games for me at Paris 2024 has been a perfect experience," she said. At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Jiang's debut, she took home four medals, two of which were gold. Her Paris 2024 performance has shown how much she's developed in the years in between.

"The three years of preparation for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have been a strong foundation for me... gave me more confidence and experience for these Games. It made sure that I can do well in every race," Jiang told the IPC.

What's a world record between friends

Jiang's 100m backstroke S6 win also broke the world record held by Ellie Marks, with a time of 1:19.44.

Marks seemed nearly as excited for Jiang breaking the world record as she was for her silver, greeting her friend in the mixed zone with a hug that led to mutual tears.

"I'm so proud of her, she's come such a long way. We got to race each other in Tokyo, and like I've told everybody, I've always just wanted to be in the pool when someone breaks my world record.

"She did, and she let me know when it happened - gave me a big hug. A very special moment for me," said Marks.

Marks has taken five silvers in this Games, but this one felt different.

"It's special because she (Jiang) broke my world record, but then I also had two special relays. It's just been a really amazing week," she said.

Friendships in the pool are special, and could be felt and seen between competitors from all around the world.

"I would say most of our classification are pretty good friends, which makes racing a lot more fun because you get to celebrate. If you don't do well, someone else has, so it's always a good time," said Marks.

"I want to watch them succeed. They're young women, they deserve support, everyone should be celebrated. This sport is hard, and it's a lot harder if you don't have people who care about you."

For Jiang, the world record just created a new high standard to measure herself against. "The world record is a new challenge for me in the future. From now on, my competitor is myself," she said.

Nearly a clean sweep

The only events Jiang did not win gold in were the 200m individual medley, with a disqualification due to a referee’s ruling, and the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay where China came 6th.

Jiang wasn't too bothered about the one disqualification.

"I was not good in that race. So it's not important."

With such an impressive haul, we asked Jiang what helped her succeed. She kept it simple: 

"I just finish each small goal, then have a rest and start again. I don't overthink it, I just do it."

Big medal moments, and big shoes

The star-studded final evening of Para swimming saw more final medal wins from multi-medallists including Great Britain's Alice Tai, Italy's Stefano Raimondi and USA's Jessica Long.

Long is the ultimate multi-medallist with 18 gold medals across her six Paralympic Games. She secured number 18 in the women's 100m butterfly S8 final, ahead of another favourite Tai who will be taking five medals total home, two of them gold.

With the next summer Paralympic Games in her home country, Long is already looking ahead. But, she declared that Los Angeles 2028 already have some “pretty big shoes to fill, pretty big prosthetic legs to fill” after the experience of the final-night crowd, as a full-capacity arena roared her on.

“That's always our big fear. Will there be sell-out crowds?” Long said. “I would say here in Paris, it has been the most incredible crowd I've ever swum in front of.”