The 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, which features over 500 events, begins on Wednesday and will continue through September 18 in Rio. Lindsay Grogan, a swimmer for Team USA, has been in Houston for a week of camp before the event.
“I would say for a lot of the Paralympic athletes, it’s kind of cliché, but we find a freedom in the water that we don’t necessarily have on land,” she says. “I feel strong in the water, there aren’t any inhibitions in the water I would say.”
When Grogan was two, she was diagnosed with scleroderma.
“It affected my whole left side except for my arm, but my leg was the main thing affected,” she says. “I walked around on crutches until I was 7, and that’s when we decided to amputate my leg.”
Grogan says coaching has increased her confidence and helps others see her the way she feels inside.
“When I’m teaching lessons, I kind of have noticed that I have a confidence,” she says. “When you carry a confidence with you, then, that makes people forget about what you don’t have – and then, they’re looking at what you do have.”
