par swimmer Gia pergolini wins USA's first gold in Paris Nat France the par swimming ready room ahead of Friday night's 100 meter backstroke s13 was tense then there were American swimmers Gia pergolini and Grace ner pergolini and ner spent their pre-race time singing and dancing keeping the energy high and trying to loosen the tension in the air I feel like the girls in the ready room hate us pergolini joked after her race the light hearted pre-race singing and dancing worked out for perolini who earned the first American Gold Medal of the 2024 par Olympics with a time of 1 minute and 4.93 seconds just short of her world record of 1 minute and 4.64 seconds the Atlanta Georgia native brought home her second straight gold medal after setting her world record in Tokyo 2024 Paris Olympics follow USA today's coverage of the biggest names and stories of the games I'm just so happy to be here and representing one of the greatest countries in the world and getting its first gold medal Paralympics pergolini said it's just unreal especially after watching the Olympians dominate the Olympics I wanted to do that here and I'm so glad I got to do that and end up achieving my goal newer followed up her silver medal 100 fly s13 performance from Thursday with an eighth place finish ner has referred to the 100 backstroke as her fun event clocking in at 1 minute and 13.35 seconds she has three more events beginning on September second never going to take for granted a chance to swim in a par Olympic final newer said that was a fun race Gia and I always have a blast back in the ready room just dancing around so definitely a good day after the 100 fly just wrapping up a good first half of my events like she did the night before Elizabeth Marx picked up the first American medal of the day swimming in the 200 individual medley sm6 she finished in 3 minutes and 2.50 seconds coming in behind world record holder Maisy Summers Newton of Great Britain it feels great markx said after the race I swim with amazing women so it's a lot that finishes an improvement for Marx an active duty member of the US Army from her Tokyo performance there the three-time paralympian came and forth with a 3 minutes and 2.43 seconds whether second or fourth Marx is pleased with her performance in the competitive 200 individual medle Division I was very proud of that fourth place finish I'm very proud of this second place finish last time it was the best time in the morning for me I'm notorious for adding time at night I'm just fortunate that that was okay it looked as if Marx was going to repeat her Tokyo finish heading down the final fifth 50 m of the race after falling into fourth position during the breaststroke leg Marx kicked into another gear passing two opponents and securing her second silver medal in Paris Maisy has a wonderful kick Marx said it sounds like a train so it gives you a little boost of energy to go faster the team of lean Smith abas Karimi Zack shatak and Ellie marks brought home silver for the US with a time of 2 minutes and 18.99 seconds the win was a little more special for Karimi Karimi born in kabo Afghanistan participated on the refugee paralympic team and was one of the flag bearers in 2021 he was awarded American citizenship and began competing as a part of Team USA earning his first par Olympic medal as a part of the 4X 50 m freestyle relay 20 points I wouldn't be able to do it without these people amazing people amazing teammates Karimi said it's an honor for me to represent the United States of America and it means everything especially for my legacy just everything for me the group had the opportunity to train together at Team camp and also at other staggered times heading into the Paralympics the team said they enjoyed being a veteran group boasting an average age of 31.25 their experience came in handy once the race began we just went out and had some fun and trusted each other shatak said that's all you can do in this kind of situation is go swim your own race and know that your teammates got your back