Seventeen-year-old Anastasia Pagonis cheered Team USA – and her millions of fans on social media – after winning her country’s first gold of the Tokyo Paralympics.
The teenager was racing in the first major international competition of her career but, if she was nervous, she didn’t show it. She finished more than 10 seconds ahead of the field to win gold in the 400m freestyle S11. Her time of 4min 54.49 seconds was also a world record. Liesette Bruinsma of the Netherlands and China’s Cai Liwen took silver and bronze respectively.
“I knew that I always swim better at night, and I just needed to have my ‘warm-up’ in the morning and get used to the pool and get the nerves out, because I was super-nervous this morning,” Pagonis said. “Now I feel super-confident going into all my other races.”
Pagonis was already one of the highest-profile athletes coming into the Tokyo Games even before she won gold. She has more than 2 million followers on TikTok, where she uses her platform to give an insight into the life of a blind athlete – as well as introducing fans to her co-star, guide dog Radar. One video in which she explained how she brushes her teeth clocked up 12m views.
“I do this for that random little girl that’s sitting out there scrolling through her phone and just listens to one of my videos and hopefully I can help her and change her life in some way,” she told the Washington Post. “And I do it for myself. People are going to make fun of me. People are going to laugh at me. I might as well make fun of myself.”
Pagonis was a star soccer player until she started to lose her sight five years ago due to genetic retina disease and autoimmune retinopathy. She then channeled her athletic skills into swimming and set the previous 400m freestyle S11 world record at the US Paralympics trials in June.
Pagonis has an opportunity to add more medals to her tally. She will race in the 200m medley and 50m and 100m freestyle in the coming days. Any further success will be welcomed by Team USA. Although the US traditionally has traditionally dominated the medal table at the Summer Olympics, the team finished fourth in the table at the 2016 Paralympics and sixth at London in 2012.
Gia Pergolini – who is Pagonis’s roommate in Tokyo – won Team USA’s second gold of the day in the 100m backstroke S13 class, touching in 1:04.64 to break her own world record set in prelims (1:05.05). Italy’s Carlotta Gillia won the silver (1:06.10) and Australia’s Katja Dedekind took bronze (1:06.49).
“It’s surreal,” Pergolini said. “I’ve been thinking about this moment for the past five years. This past year, I was thinking about it day and night. There are so many emotions finally seeing all my hard work pay off. Representing my country and getting them a gold medal is just crazy.”
Added Pagonis of Perglioni’s gold: “She’s my roommate and honestly my best friend, and I’m so excited we’re able to be here and we’re both world record holders.
“We’re going to the cafeteria and I’m getting two ice-creams, not one. It is one of those nights. Vanilla, of course.”
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