At only 19 days old, swimmer and Georgia native McKenize Coan had already been given what is described as “a death sentence.”
After being diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta, doctors informed Coan’s parents that they didn’t expect her to live a long or comfortable life.
“And if I did,” the 28-year-old Clarkesville native said. “They basically laid out all the things that I would never be able to do. I would never hold my head up. I would never sit up. I would never stand, walk or crawl.”
Determined not to let the diagnosis dictate her future, Coan’s parents enrolled her in physical therapy appointments beginning at six months old. This soon transitioned into aqua therapy and, later, a spot on her local swim team at the age of six.
Over twenty years later, Coan will compete in the 2024 Paralympic Games, the fourth overall in her professional swimming career.
The four-time gold medalist states that while the chance to compete overseas is exciting, the training and preparation leading to the big event was anything but a Paris holiday.
“It’s definitely pretty intense, and I always tell people, if you pursue this at this level, you got to make sure that you love because it’s going to demand a lot of you … it’s not always pretty.”
The swimmer was in the water up to four hours a day, six days a week. She also did weight training twice a week after her morning swim practices to ensure muscle development outside the pool.
“It’s not just like a participation thing and it’s not just like a bunch of athletes out there to get good experience. It’s a bunch of athletes who have trained their whole lives for this.”
Bailey Moody, U.S. Paralympic wheelchair basketball player
“For me personally, I’ve always loved the grind of it. I’ve always loved going in every single day and trying to be better than I was the day before,” she said.
Coan says a major benefit of competing in the games is that she has been able to connect with athletes who can relate to the grind of intensive physical training and to performing under a physical disability.
“I’ll never forget the very first time that I was on a Paralympic pool deck and I looked around, and I think I was a little bit shell shocked because there were finally people who looked like me,” she remembers.
“I wasn’t the only one rolling around the pool deck in my wheelchair. I wasn’t the only one with physical visual differences with other people. That was the first time that I’ve ever really felt at home and felt comfortable in who I was,” she said.
First held in 1960 in Rome, Italy, the Paralympic Games allow athletes worldwide with physical disabilities to compete.
This year’s games will feature five Georgian athletes representing Team USA, including Coan: track and field runners Ryan Medrano and Jarryd Wallace, swimmer Gia Pergolini, and wheelchair basketball player Bailey Moody.
With the exception of Medrano, who is making his debut, the athletes have all previously competed in various games, and they hold five gold, two silver, and two bronze medals between them.
“I’ve got a little more experience this year, so I know what I’m getting into,” said Moody, who won a bronze medal with her teammates in the Tokyo Olympics.
“There was so much stress leading up to Tokyo for me and my team as far as making sure we don’t test positive. [This year’s games] takes that level of anxiety and stress away and lets me focus on soaking up the moment and focus on my sport.”
“I’ll never forget the very first time that I was on a Paralympic pool deck and I looked around, and I think I was a little bit shell shocked because there were finally people who looked like me.”
McKenzie Coan, U.S. Paralympic swimmer
Moody, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Alabama, has always considered basketball her one true love.
She did not originally anticipate, however, becoming a professional para athlete.
After being diagnosed with cancer at the age of ten, Moody was forced to have her right leg amputated.
She soon got into wheelchair basketball and, after watching the Rio 2016 games, set her sights on the Paralympics.
In 2018, the first year that she tried out, she made her first national team. Only three years later, she received a spot on the U.S. women’s team for Tokyo.
“I was kind of set on wanting to be a Paralympian … I had no idea that it would come so soon,” Moody said.
In addition to the joy she receives while on the court, Moody is so thankful to be part of a new wave of awareness and support for disabled athletes.
“We are making great strides in that area. I think more and more people every year know what the Paralympics is,” she said.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done as far as educating and kind of understanding the level of athletics that it is, and I think the closer we go to L.A. … the more equality that we get as far as commercials and signing athletes.”
This visibility has led to both women having positive encounters with fans, some of whom are disabled themselves.
One encounter that Coan says has left a “lasting impact” occurred moments after she won her first gold medal in Rio. When she went into the crowd to celebrate with her family, she was approached by a Brazilian woman and her young daughter in a pink wheelchair.
“It turns out she has the same condition that I have, and she told me because she watched me go up there and do that she knows that she can do anything that she sets her mind to,” the swimmer remembered.
“That moment really taught me that this is what this is all about. It’s really fun to go out and swim best times and win medals and break records, but what we’re out there is such a deeper thing than just going out for medals and outcomes. It means inspiring a whole new generation to go out and do what we’re doing.”
Both athletes hope that this year’s games will entertain and educate audience members watching from home.
“I think people can tend to see disabled athletes as ‘oh, it’s good that you’re out there … it’s good that you’re meeting people’, and that’s totally not the case,” Moody said.
“It’s not just like a participation thing and it’s not just like a bunch of athletes out there to get good experience. It’s a bunch of athletes who have trained their whole lives for this.”
“People are so quick to look at people with disabilities and only think of the things that they can’t do,” added Coan. “But what if we looked at people with differences and thought of the things that they could do? What if we looked at people with disabilities and thought of the things that are possible for them?”
