The swimmer scored Team USA's first gold medal in the 2020 Games.
17-Year-Old Anastasia Pagonis Just Broke Her Own World Record at the Paralympics
The Paralympics 2021 schedule has officially commenced, which means one thing: The stream of epic women-in-sports moments we’ve seen this summer continues.
In case you missed it, women dominated the competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics earlier this summer. On Team USA, the five most mentioned athletes on social media were women—a buzz they backed up by bringing home 58% of the medals. The Paralympics—the name is short for Parallel Olympics—promise to be just as groundbreaking, as athletes with different types of physical abilities compete in 22 sports.
If the Olympics are heralded for their ability to bring the world together for moments of triumph, conversations on mental health, and a sense of unified camaraderie, the Paralympics have the power to be even more valuable. Yes, the Games are about made-to-go-viral athletic achievements. But they are also about upending stereotypes about disability and giving us all role models who refuse to be tokenized.
Yet again women athletes are leading the way, using their platforms to start conversations—and their athletic prowess to bring home some hardware. There’s Oksana Masters, who will be going for her ninth Paralympic medal in her fourth sport; Tatyana McFadden, a six-time Paralympic cyclist who will be going for her 18th medal; and Melissa Stockwell, an Army veteran and mom of two going for gold in the triathalon.
Catch all the action August 24 through September 5 (you can get the full Paralympics 2021 schedule here) and don’t miss these women.
Anastasia PagonisThis 17-year-old swimmer just broke her own world record and won Team USA their first gold medal at the games. On the second day of the Paralympics, Pagonis won the women’s 400-meter freestyle S11, finishing in a time of 4:54.49 minutes, which was over 10 seconds ahead of the other swimmers. She previously set the world record for this competition when she finished the U.S. Paralympic Trials with a time of 4:56.16 this June.
“If you told me this a few years ago, I wouldn’t even think I’d be alive, so just being here and being able to have this experience and this—unbelievable,” Pagonis said after the race, per People. “I love being able to bond with my teammates and have this experience with all of them.”
Instagram content
Tatyana McFaddenMcFadden is one of the most recognized Para athletes in the world. And with extremely good reason—the wheelchair racer has won 17 medals over six Paralympic Games, and her advocacy for athletes with disabilities led to the passage of an Obama-era federal law that requires high schools to allow students with disabilities to compete in sports. This summer she’ll be looking to bring home her first gold in the marathon event.
Instagram content
Melissa Stockwell
Stockwell’s Paralympic story began in 2004 in Iraq when she became the first U.S. woman to lose a limb in active combat. Four years later she was competing as a Paralympic swimmer in Beijing and even set a new American record. In Tokyo she’ll be competing to bring home her second medal in the triathalon.
Instagram content
Oksana Masters
One sport isn’t enough for Oksana Masters. The double amputee has already brought home medals in rowing, biathlon, and cross-country skiing. In Tokyo, just weeks after a surgery that threatened her athletic future, she plans to add a medal in cycling to her collection. (Coincidentally, only one other Paralympian has medaled in three sports—Aaron Pike, Masters’s boyfriend.)
Instagram content
Shoko OtaFor the first time ever, the Paralympic Games will include a full-contact sport: taekwondo. Japan’s Shoko Ota is the athlete to watch—she’s already won three winter Paralympic medals and had retired before the inclusion of taekwondo was announced. But on her road to Tokyo, she dethroned the reigning world champion.
Instagram content
Jessica Long
Swimmer Jessica Long competed at her first Paralympic Games when she was just 12 and is a 13-time Paralympic champion.
Instagram content
Nicky Nieves
Nieves, a middle blocker, is heading to Tokyo with her team as the defending champions in sitting volleyball. She credits their strong support for each other for their success: “Not only do we lift each other up, but we find ways to try and help fill each other emotionally when they need it the most,” she wrote.
Instagram content
Zakia KhudadadiZakia Khudadadi was set to be the first woman to represent Afghanistan in the Paralympics. After the Taliban takeover, she shared an emotional video. “My intention is to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Please hold my hand and help me,” she said, per The New York Times, in a video shared and translated by Reuters. “Please, I request you all—especially all the women from around the globe and the female institutions and the United Nations to not let the rights of a female citizen of Afghanistan in the Paralympic movement to be taken away so easily.”
Though the Afghani athletes will not be competing, the International Paralympic Committee flew Afghanistan’s flag during the Opening Ceremony in Tokyo as a sign of solidarity. Following the release of the video, Khudadadi and several other female athletes in Afghanistan were successfully evacuated to Australia, The New York Times reports.
This story originally appeared on: Glamour - Author:Condé Nast
