A 17-year-old swimmer from Long Island shattered her own world record at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo on Thursday, winning the first gold medal of the competition for Team USA. Anastasia Pagonis finished the 400m freestyle in 4:54.49, a whopping 10.85 seconds ahead of the silver medalist, Liesette Bruinsma of the Netherlands. Pagonis first broke the Paralympic record earlier in the day, when she won her heat in 4:58.40, almost 30-seconds faster than the runner-up.
In addition to being an incredible swimmer, and now, a gold medalist, Pagonis is a TikTok star with more than 2 million followers. She uses her massive platform to show people how she navigates life as a blind athlete, teaching them about adaptive sports and the visually impaired community. A video in which she explains how she brushes her teeth has more than 12 million views.
