McKenzie Coan
McKenzie Coan (born June 14, 1996) is an American swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she swam the 400m Freestyle in the S8 category. Coan was one of four S8 category swimmers chosen to compete for Team USA at the games. She later had her breakout games in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, where she would go on to win 3 gold medals in the 50, 100, and 400M Freestyle races, with an additional silver medal in the 34-point women's 4 x 100m Freestyle relay. In the process of getting her gold medal in the 50M Freestyle she also set a new Paralympic Record.
Personal
Coan was born on June 14, 1996. She has the connective tissue disorder "Osteogenesis imperfecta", which is most associated with brittle bones. Coan has broken over 30 bones in her lifetime. In addition to swimming, Coan participated in Girl Scouts[1] in youth. Coan currently resides in Clarkesville, GA and was homeschooled.[2]
Swimming
Coan is an S8 category swimmer, who is ranked first in the world in the 1500m freestyle and second in the 50m backstroke. Coan is an American record holder from her previous classification S9 in the 100m Individual Medley and the 400m freestyle. She started swimming competitively at the age of six after one of her brothers joined the swim team. She is currently a member of the Cumming Waves Swim Team, where she is also team captain.
Coan's main talents are in that of the freestyle and backstroke events. Although she was scheduled to compete in 3 events at the London Paralympic Games, Coan was forced to withdraw from the 100m backstroke and 200m IM because of a teammate's reclassification status. Coan managed to come out 6th overall in the 400m freestyle final on 31 August 2012. She came out ranked 4th overall in the IPC Swimming World Ranking.
Coan recently committed to swim for Paralympic national team Coach Brian Loeffler at Loyola University in Maryland. She will join a number of other Paralympic athletes as part of her training group through Rio 2016.
2016 Paralympics
She won three individual gold medals at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.[3]