SCI Superstar: Mallory Weggemann

Meet our newest SCI Superstar US Paralympic swimmer Mallory Weggemann! A lifelong swimmer, she fought back from an epidural injection that paralyzed her and in a year returned to the sport she loves as a T10 para. She won gold in London in 2012, breaking the women’s record in the 50m. Can she do it again in Rio? Read all about her journey, from injuring her arm in 2014 in a crazy fall to her wedding planned for this December, here

Getting wet…gracefully

4 awesome pool videos for wheelchair-users!

The first video shows a super buff 48 yr old C6 quad uses a lap pool (by himself). Video #2 video shows a much more dignified pool lift made just for the Paralympics (so cool!)

Video #3 is three sexy quads goofing off in the pool with floaties, and video #4, why no other than Mia of Push Girls. Watch her try swimming for the first time in YEARS. Watch these videos

Push Girls Episode 13 Review: In The Deep End

In episode 13, Mia swims her first meet (and it’s against all able-bodied swimmers), Auti and Eric finally get some deep conversations going on having kids and Tiphany rolls a 5k. And you gotta watch Tiph do her faux chair “run” in Angela’s kitchen.

And good news! Push Girls has been renewed for a second season! (look for it in 2013)

SPOILERS AHEAD ***

The episode begins by checking in with Mia at the pool, whose doing her last practice before her swim meet, and we get another melodramatic over dub of Mia’s story, and she talks about how hard it was to not be able to swim anymore (and now she’s worried about failing).

Her trainer Kevin, who trained several Paralympic athletes, has her doing different turns in the water. He tells the camera she needs to get over her emotional blocks if she wants to succeed.

After she gets out of the pool, she tells him how slow she feels when she’s swimming, which I’m sure is a big change from how it felt before. “I’m still so far from the level I used to be at,” she says. “The meet is only a few days away, but I really don’t feel ready.”