Brittle bone disease won’t stop United States para-athlete McKenzie Coan from swimming

SINGAPORE – United States swimmer McKenzie Coan will be a woman on a mission when she competes at the World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore in September 2025.

A year ago, the seven-time Paralympic medallist missed out on the Manchester meet after coming down with Bell’s palsy, a facial muscle weakness or paralysis which developed after a bad respiratory infection.

She said: “The left side of my face was completely paralysed. I couldn’t hear out of my left ear, I couldn’t blink my eye, I couldn’t move my face. It was terrible. I went to the emergency room and they thought I was having a stroke but they quickly figured out it was Bell’s palsy.”

The 28-year-old, who has osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease, was in town from Oct 1-5 for the Singapore Disability Sports forum, which was supported by the US Embassy here through the Embassy Small Grants Programme.

Her condition has resulted in over 50 broken bones in her lifetime, but Coan said she had never missed a swim meet because of a broken bone in her 12 years of competitive swimming (S7, S8).

That was until the Manchester meet in 2023 – the pullout ranks as “one of the hardest days of my entire career”, she said.

Despite paralysis affecting one side of her face, she tried to power through in training.

She added: “I would stop every single lap, and I would use my hand to blink my eye. I couldn’t breathe out of that side of my mouth, so I would swallow all kinds of water because I couldn’t really close my mouth.

“I tried to keep going until my coach sat me down. And he said, ‘Why are you doing this?’ I remember that day, I finally let myself be a human being.”

Her love affair with the sport began as a child, when she picked up swimming as part of the aqua therapy for her condition.

She said: “It was always kind of dangerous for me to move around on land or to try different sports and things.

“In the pool, you’re weightless, and so that kind of provided a safe space for me to move around and exercise and hopefully build muscle.”

She found out about the Paralympic movement and knew then that she wanted to swim competitively.

“I remember going home with my mum and googling the Paralympics, and in front of me on Google images were athletes who looked like me,” said Coan.

“They all had disabilities and were competing at the highest level, winning gold medals for their country. And I just remember saying to my mum, I’m going to win a gold medal one day, and that’s kind of how I got started.”

Since then, she has won four gold and three silver medals across four editions of the Paralympics, as well as nine golds, five silvers and a bronze at the world championships.

Her triumphs in the pool also go some way to helping dispel the perception that people with brittle bone disease should not do sports.

When asked if she can imagine herself not swimming, Coan said: “I think about that sometimes, what if I didn’t swim? What if I had chosen a different life path?

“And for a moment, it’s kind of scary, because I’m so grateful for what swimming has done for me.

“I’m not so sure that there was another sport out there for me, that I would have clicked with as much as I did with the water.”

After winning a silver in the 400m freestyle S7 at the Paris Games, Coan will now turn her focus to the world championships in 2025.

She said: “I want to do even better than I think possible. My main event has always been the 400m freestyle, so to come here next year, and medal at these world championships is probably my biggest goal, the ultimate full circle.”

She is also looking forward to meeting Singapore’s most decorated Paralympian, Yip Pin Xiu.

“She did incredible in Paris, we’re all in awe of her. She is absolutely incredible, but also a very nice person as well,” said Coan.

“(I hope to) sit down with her and pick her brain about her experiences about the Paralympic movement and what we can do to make it better.”