I was born in Los Angeles in 1995 and learned to swim for the first time when I was only 10 months old. Then my love of swimming began when I joined a swimming class at the local YMCA, but I faced two challenges. The first was the multicultural and competitive environment. My swim team was predominantly white Americans, with only two black kids, including myself. So it was challenging to be exposed at a young age to people from different cultural backgrounds. An even bigger challenge was being diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) at only 10 years old. This is a hereditary neurological disorder that makes walking and daily activities difficult and I had to relearn how to walk and basic motor functions all over again. I lived with this disease for 12 years, hiding it from my coaches, teammates, and friends, because this condition threatened to change my entire life, including my passion for swimming.
Everything changed in 2018 when my swimming coach Wilma Wong and a friend from the UK respectfully mentioned something different about the way I moved. At first, I resisted accepting what was happening. I was afraid of being labeled and criticized. I did not want to let my obstacles define me as well as frustrate my aspirations. But at the same time, I realized that it is important to understand and be thankful for myself not as a perfect person, but as a perfect version of myself. A deep part of me understood that I needed to accept a reality that I had kept under wraps for so long, and I was determined to take the next step. This decision was not just an acceptance of reality, but a great courage to face myself and open up the future. This was the beginning of my pursuit of competing in the Paralympics. Of course, it was not an easy road, for living with CMT is more difficult than one can imagine, both physically and mentally. But it is part of who I am, and I have gradually come to accept that. I also realized that we all live with some pain.
In 2021 I won a bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo and in 2024 I represented Team USA as a swimmer at the Paris Paralympics. Throughout this journey, I have realized that my disability does not define me, but empowers me. I also learned the lesson that the only way to fail is to give up. Learning from one’s failures, accepting them, and moving on leads to greater success. Time, progress, and opportunity in the midst of winning and losing continue to prepare me many times throughout my life, allowing me to achieve and ultimately obtain the dreams and destinies I have been given.
For me, swimming is more than just a personal hobby and a professional sport. According to the statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 360,000 people lost their lives to drowning in 2016. To help reduce the global drowning rate, I established the Swim Up Hill Foundation. The first activity was to go to Colombia and bring local children to the city center. We then partnered with a swimming school to provide a day’s worth of meals, swimming instruction, and equipment, not only to protect them with education, but to make them realize what they can really do. We also published a book, which we have given to 20,000 students, teaching them the rudiments of swimming. We plan to teach one million students how to swim annually by the fall of 2028.
My goal is not only to medal at the Paralympics, but to become the first Paralympic athlete to win the Nobel Peace Prize at some point in my career. My vision for the future is to rebuild my athletic team for the Paralympics in Los Angeles and represent people with an identity that boldly takes on challenges and overcomes difficulties. In addition, as CEO of the Swim Up Hill Foundation, I will spend the next 10 years working to positively impact people, not just profits. By promoting education and swimming, the focus will be on eradicating drowning, a global endemic issue, and addressing challenges like water phobia in economically disadvantaged areas. Even in the face of setbacks, the commitment to this mission will remain unwavering. To those of you reading this, “Trust your instincts, embrace who you are, and don’t be afraid to share your story.”