When Greg Stewart stepped into the circle for his first throw on Wednesday and pulled the shot put tight into the broad neck of his 7-2 frame, he thought of the words of his coach Dylan Armstrong.

``Dylan always says, make sure you throw your furthest, your hardest on the very first one, and let the other people have to deal with it,'' Stewart said.

Stewart executed the Olympic bronze medallist's instructions perfectly.

On his opening throw, the 35 year old from Kamloops, B.C., unleashed a Paralympic record of 16.75 metres, and then let out a huge roar to match, to win shot put gold at the Tokyo Paralympics.

On Canada's best day at the Paralympics, swimmer Aurelie Rivard captured her second gold medal in spectacular fashion, smashing her own world record in the 400-metre freestyle by about five seconds, and wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos captured his third silver medal, in the men's 100.

Canada has 16 medals through eight days of the Games.

While Stewart is making his Paralympic debut in Tokyo, he's been an athlete most of his life.

Despite being born with no left arm below the elbow, he played varsity basketball for Thomson Rivers University and earned U Sport defensive player of the year in 2011.