Alexa Halko, a 16-year-old junior at Jamestown High School, won bronze Saturday in the women’s 100 T34 race.
She edged out Netherlands’ Amy Siemons by one-hundredth of a second to come in third in her first race of her first Paralympic Games.
“It was a super fast track,” Halko said in a news release from the United States Olympic Committee. “I’m with all of these amazing 34’s and it was just awesome to race against them.
The teenager, who is the youngest member of the U.S. track & field team, competed at her first international meet with Team USA during the 2015 International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar. There Halko set an American record in the women’s T34 100-meter with a time of 18.55.
Halko will compete in the 400-meter on Tuesday and will compete in the 800-meter, in which she is the world record holder, on Sept. 16.
“This race gave me a taste of how everything is going to be so I’m really excited for my next events,” Halko said in the release.
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