The first day of the Canada Games took place on Sunday in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and two Canadian Maritime provinces (Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island) won their first medal.
Gavin Baggs of Paradise, Newfoundland won the silver medal in the men’s 400 metre para freestyle swimming in the S6-13 classification. Baggs suffers from sacral agenesis (missing bones in spine which limits ability to stand). Ken Stroud of Richmond, British Columbia won the gold medal and John Gillis of Pickering, Ontario won the bronze medal.
Veronica MacLellan of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island won the bronze medal in the women’s 400 metre para freestyle swimming in the S6-13 classification. MacLellan has limited range in one arm.
According to Jason Simmonds of The Guardian, MacLellan is only the third swimmer from Prince Edward Island to win a medal at the Canada Summer Games. Katherine Josey of Charlottetown won the silver medal in the women’s 100 metre freestyle at the 1985 Canada Summer Games in Saint John, New Brunswick, and Katherine’s daughter Alexa McQuaid of Charlottetown won the silver medal in the women’s 50 metre breaststroke at the 2017 Canada Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
MacLellan placed behind gold medalist Alyssa Smyth of Orangeville, Ontario and silver medalist Mathilde Falardeau of Quebec City, Quebec. Smyth was one of two gold medalists from Ontario at the 2025 Canada Games on Sunday. The other was Isabella Cooper of Toronto in the women’s 1500 metre freestyle swimming, Quebec also won gold on Sunday as Oliver Blanchard of Pointe-Claire, Quebec placed first in the men’s 800 metre swimming.
To put MacLellan’s medal into perspective, Prince Edward Island only won two medals at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Vanessa Keefe of Charlottetown won gold in women’s 69 kilogram wrestling, and RJ Hetherington of Stratford won bronze in men’s 65 kilogram wrestling.