On September 7th McKenzie Coan and Alyssa Gialamas, two juniors on the women’s swimming and diving team, embarked on a journey of a lifetime to Rio for the 2016 Paralympic games. This will be the girl’s second appearance in the Paralympics as they also competed in the 2012 games in London.
Coan was dominant in her events as she swept the individual freestyle golds. She collected her first career gold medal in the S7 50 free. She also went on to capture the gold in the S7 400 and the S7 100 freestyle as well. Coan did not stop there. She also was apart of the 400 freestyle relay team, which won silver in the event. Coan finished the Paralympic games with 4 medals. (3 gold, 1 silver)
Gialamas had an outstanding Paralympic games as well. She placed sixth in her strongest event, the S5 50m backstroke turning in a time of 47.96. She also finished tenth in the S5 100 free. Gialamas rounded out her performance in the games by posting a 3:15.04 in the S5 200 free. This was good enough for seventh place in the event.
To compete in the Paralympic games is an incredible accomplishment to begin with, but to have the success that these girls had is something to be proud of. Congratulations girls on an experience of a lifetime!