A month ago, legends such as Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin dove into the Olympic pool in London.  In early September, athletes like Colleen Young dove into the very same pool, competing for medals in the Paralympics.

As CHS began the school year, Young flew to Germany to begin training with Team USA for the Paralympic games. Young is 14-years-old and swims for the Clayton Shaw Park Tideriders (CSP) year-round, while attending Lindbergh High School. She is legally blind, meaning that her vision is less than 20/200 in her best eye.  Young’s vision is 20/2400 and 20/2800.

“Before coming into London, I only knew maybe half the athletes that are on the team, but being with each other for like a month has brought us all together,” Young said.  “It’s like we’re a big family now. Some people are definitely closer to me than others, but we all support each other just like a family would.”

Young is the youngest member on the team by a year, yet she holds five American records.

On September 1st and 2nd, she swam her first two races, placing 12th in the 50-meter freestyle and 9th in the 100-meter freestyle, achieving best times in each. Later in the week, she also competed in the 200-meter individual medley and the 100-meter breaststroke, making it to the finals in each and meeting her goal to come home from London with best personal times.

“Colleen’s got a hard work ethic; she made 100 percent of the practices this summer.  Over the season, she was probably at about 90 percent of the practices,” Mark Imig, who has been Young’s coach since she was 10, said. “She’s just a natural swimmer.”

Imig described some techniques used to help athletes that are disabled. Young may be legally blind, but for fully blind athletes there is someone at each end of the pool who taps them on the head with a tennis ball or piece of foam on a stick just before the swimmer needs to turn.

“When I’m in the water, it’s hard to see the wall on the other end,” Young said, “Sometimes I come in too close and slam my feet against the wall, but on a flip turn I usually just wing it.”

Because she is not fully blind, she relies on the black line at the bottom of the pool and the colors of the flags above the lanes.

Young also described the increase in popularity at these Paralympics.  The aquatics center sold out for all of the preliminary and final events.

“I think everyone should take a chance to go see a paralympic meet, to see how these athletes compete and how much they enjoy themselves,” Imig said. “Whereas we look at them as maybe being disabled, they [the athletes] don’t see anything different with any of them.”