Paralympic Gold and Bronze Medalist is Advocating for Diversity & Inclusion | NowThis

Paralympic Gold and Bronze Medalist and two-time Paralympian Mallory Weggemann is working hard to foster a discussion that transcends her field of play.
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[NOTE: This video was originally published in July 2019.]

Mallory Weggemann started swimming when she was seven years old, she grew up in Minnesota and competed in high school swimming all four years. She was on Varsity and was team caption her senior year of high school. After she graduated, things took a turn.

"It was a very freak thing that happened," Weggemann said. "I literally walked into a clinic one day to get what was supposed to be my third and final epidural injection for back pain, and I simply never walked out."

She had been awake during the procedure and remembered all of it, down to the second she was paralyzed. It was seven months after she graduated from high school, and just two months before her 19th birthday.

Weggemann struggled, at first, to adjust to her new lifestyle and she quickly realized she might not often see someone who looks like her, and the biggest thing she learned was that she couldn't waste the rest of her life being angry.

Returning to the water to swim was a challenge, Weggemann had to get used to her new body.

"Getting into the water and now having a different body and dealing with learning how to balance my body from a buoyancy standpoint in the water, but then also propel myself without that kick that I relied on for so long," she said. "It was different. It was challenging, it was at times incredibly frustrating, but at the same time it was also kind of liberating."

Slowly but surely, Weggemann moved forward, started to forgive, and found herself looking at the future possibilities she had.

Now, Weggemann is training for Tokyo 2020, and spends her time out of the water being an avid disability advocate and sparking conversations surrounding diversity and inclusion. She has become an active public speaker and would love nothing more than to continue to use her voice and platform to help guide and participate in that conversation.

#Paralympics #Swimming #Activism #Empowerment #HerStories #Women #NowThis #NowThisNews

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