Paralympic Gold and Bronze Medalist is Advocating for Diversity & Inclusion | NowThis
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- 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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Thank you, Mallory for sharing. Your message is so encouraging but realistic for those physically disadvantaged.
When disability turns into gaining ability to develop adaptability to new circumstances- it's golden💪✨🙌
I am so glad that I watched this story about Mallory. What an awesome woman.
Love your strength! Great advocate! 👏👏👏
Amazing story
She is beautiful Lady ❤🙋♀️
It's impressive what she achieved, don't get me wrong... But... Does she think there is no woman in sports or no female, disabled athletes at all? At least she talks like it... The whole monologue is weird.
There are a ton of disabled people and women in sports! That's why Paralympics exists! And we all know for a long time that a big portion of disabled people are discriminated against in the workforce, intentionally or unintentionally!
We have still a long way to battle that.
But... I don't know.... maybe it's the way the video is cut? But I expected her to be more humble. Here she sounds so attention seeking. "look at me I'm so special. I struggle especially because I'm a woman and disabled at the same time. I can go into room after room and I might never see a person like me!"
Yeah just like a black person living in rural China. He might never see a person like him in hundreds of miles....
Is it just me? (I might be wrong and got a false impression because of the editing)
It might have been better to let friends and family talk about her struggle and achievements instead of herself?
Diversity and inclusion to divide and foment hate.
Let me guess, she lives in a all white neighborhood.
Who cares anyway
You left a comment so you do and me too😃
And you chose to live your life angry!