PARIS – Brian Siemann had been here before. Waiting to see exactly where he had finished in the men’s 400-meter T53 final and if he had captured the medal that had so far evaded him, the four-time Paralympian felt a sense of Deja-vu. 

Anxiety turned into unabashed excitement as the leaderboard showed his time at 47.84, a personal best and, more importantly, enough to get him that oh so sought-over first Paralympic medal.

“I’ve been in that situation a bunch of times before, waiting, and I look and see my name in fourth place, and it was by a hair,” remarked Siemann. “To finally crack that threshold and make it onto the podium is just incredible and exciting. I’m so happy right now!”

The four time Paralympian was filled with emotion after his triumphant victory, a success that was possible in part due to an ability to keep a level head.

“I tried to keep my emotions in check during the race, trust my training, know that I have done this many times before, and treat this as another training session,” said the Illinois resident. “As I started to catch up to some of the guys on the outside, I was like ‘Oh wow, I’m feeling good; let’s just go for it,’ and I ended up with a medal.”

A year prior to these Paralympics, Siemann had finally gotten over the hump in international play. After five prior appearances and no medals to show for it, the four-time Paralympian captured two bronze medals at the world championship right here in Paris, a precursor of what was to come.

While the momentum of that performance certainly could not have hurt, Siemann credited another factor for his personal best performance.

“My sisters are here and my friends are here as well, so getting to race in front of them was special,” remarked the bronze medal winner.

Siemann was one of five representatives from the United States to reach the podium during session six of the athletic events.

Siemann’s training partner, Daniel Romanchuck, took bronze in the men’s 400m-T54 final. It was the second medal of the games for the third time Paralympian. He now has as many medals as he did in Tokyo, with three events remaining.

“It’s just move on to the next race and get ready,” said Romanchuck.

Susannah Scaroni brought home the first medal of the day for the United States, scoring bronze hardware in the women’s 800m-T54. She was one of three U.S. athletes in the race alongside Tatyanna Mcfadden (4th place) and Hanna Dederick (7th place). Scaroni, who started the race in the seventh lane, got to the inside of the track with a courageous pursuit.

“The last 100 meters, lane one seemed to be opening up, and I took a risk and went on one, and miraculously made it to the front in a clear lane,” remarked Scaroni. “It could have easily been someone went back over and I would have been boxed in, but I’m really happy that didn’t happen tonight.” 

The U.S. had its strongest showing in a couple of jumping events. During the women’s long jump T37, Jaleen Roberts took the silver medal; it was her 2nd straight Paralympic taking the silver medal in that event.

By far the most dominant event showing of the session came in the high jump. Roderick Townsend scored yet another gold medal in the T47 classification with a 2.12-meter jump. The world record holder attempted to break his own world record with a 2.17-meter leap and came up just short. Townsend has won one gold medal in each of the last three Paralympics.

The dominant session added to what has been a robust Para athletics performance for the United States in the games thus far. Through six sessions of events, the U.S. has corralled 13 medals.