Saint-Denis, France — If you enjoy watching wheelchair athletes compete in medium-length track events, you were in for a treat on Thursday evening.

Five U.S. athletes competed in 400 and 800 meter T53/T54 races at Stade de France.

Chelsea Stein got the party started in the women’s 400M T53. Stein capped off her first Paralympic Games by posting a time of 1:06.47, good for eighth place. Stein also raced in the 100 and 800 meter races earlier in the games.

“Making the Paralympics one day was my dream, and I did accomplish that,” exclaimed Stein. “It felt really good just to be out there with other athletes, it felt surreal to me but at the same time it’s like ‘I’m here’.”

Two athletes followed Stein in the women’s 400M T54 race. Tatyana McFadden entered the race with 21 career medals, including eight golds, ranging from Athens in 2004 to Paris in 2024. McFadden finished the race third but was disqualified due to lane infringement.

Hannah Dederick also raced in the event, and she had her best placement of any of her events in Paris. Dederick came in seventh in the 800 and sixth in the 100, but she saved her best for last. The second-time Paralympian’s mark of 54.68 resulted in fourth place, less than a second shy of Chinese bronze medalist Zhaoqian Zhou.

“This is the strongest the field has ever been,” explained Dederick. “We’ve got amazing up-and-coming athletes, to be able to make three finals in a row and be top five, this is such a feel coming from these games to make me want to be a better athlete going forward.”

Daniel Romanchuk was right in the hunt for a medal in the men’s 800M T54 race. The three-time Paralympian entered the race with four medals to his name, including two in Paris. But, his hunt for another came up just short. Romanchuk raced the two laps in 1:31.24. That slotted him in fifth place- just 0.26 seconds behind Swiss bronze medalist Marcel Hug.

The best run of the night belonged to Brian Siemann in the men’s T53 800M. The now-four-time Paralympian entered the Paris Games with no medals to his name.

That’s a thing of the past.

Four days after claiming bronze in the men’s T53 400M, Siemann added another. His time of 1:38.44- barely a second behind Canadian gold medalist Brent Lakatos- added another bronze medal to his trophy case.

“I’m very very happy,” exclaimed Siemann. “This is the event that I’ve wanted to medal in for a very long time, and so to pull that out for my last track event is really exciting.”

Two days of athletics competition remain at Stade de France, and Team USA has plenty of athletes seeking to add to the medal count, including Justin Phongsavanh in the men’s F54 javelin throw on Friday.