Paralympian Anastasia Pagonis Hoping to ‘Change Perspective’ with Fuse TV Series

Paralympian Anastasia Pagonis Hoping to ‘Change Perspective’ with Fuse TV Series

If you search for Anastasia Pagonis on the internet, chances are you’ll find her social media channels before mention of her Paralympic gold medal or world record. And it won’t take long scrolling through her profile to understand what corner of social media she has so adeptly staked out.

It’s no surprise then that the swimmer – who is, to quote her bio, “changing the way you ‘see’ the visually impaired” – would jump at the chance to shift perceptions via another medium. Hence Pagonis’ participation in the Fuse Channel’s “Like a Girl” series, which follows outstanding female athletes on their journeys.

The series, which premiered March 29, promises, “candid and intimate conversations on topics such as mental health, gender and race inequality, social stigmas, body image.” This season has profiled WNBA player Angel McCoughtry, beach volleyball player April Ross, Jamaican transgender runner CeCe Telford, skateboarder Jennifer Soto and soccer player Madison Hammond. Pagonis’s episode debuts Wednesday, April 26 at 10 p.m. ET.

Subverting a pejorative like the one in the series title vibes with what Pagonis tries to do daily on social media.

“It was a really fun experience,” Pagonis said. “The whole crew was super amazing, which is always nice. And it’s amazing that they’re doing something that has a negative stigma, the ‘Like a Girl,’ and that they’re putting it out there to change the perspective that people have on it. It’s a huge impact, and I feel like it’s very negatively approached a lot of the time. …

“I feel like it was really amazing to be able to talk about my disability in a positive way, because I feel like it’s kind of negatively approached. Being a woman and having a disability is something that people kind of always think of the negatives instead of the positives, and it was shining light on the amazing things that I’ve done.”

That’s a lot of what Pagonis has done in her career. She began losing her eyesight at age 11 due to autoimmune retinopathy and by 14 was functionally blind. The pool was a refuge, swimming her first para meet in 2017 at age 13.

The Long Island native rocketed to national prominence, setting the world record in the women’s S11 400 freestyle at U.S. Paralympic Trials at age 17. She would lower it in Tokyo to 4:54.49 to win gold, along with bronze (and an American record) in the SM11 200 IM.

Anastasia Pagonis; Photo Courtesy: Sea World/Discovery Cove

She shares the behind-the-scenes of her journey on social media, where she has 2.7 million TikTok followers (plus more than 100 million video likes) and 332,000 followers on Instagram. Her videos tackle the serious and not-so-serious questions she fields, from the earnest and well-meaning to the often thoughtless. She and her guide dog Radar supply answers, some with a justifiable hint of sarcasm to clap back when needed, all with the Gen Z sensibility shared by many in her cohort, which includes poking a good amount of fun at herself and influencer culture. (And plenty of her videos have nothing to do with her disability, just the kind of stuff you’d expect from any social-savvy American teen.)

She’s not shy about using her platform to venture into serious territory, like a video that starts, “Sometimes I just hate being blind,” where Pagonis talks to camera from her bedroom with a disarming sense of humor to get a point across. Her “dark humor” allows her to be vulnerable about the triumphs and challenges of daily life.

Pagonis says her social media started “as therapy,” a way to get the things on her mind out there. The audience it found encouraged her to do more. That connection with people – who are struggling with vision loss or know someone who’s been bullied for vision issues – spurs her to create.

“I started showing people, this is what blindness is and breaking down that stereotype that I feel like Hollywood has put in so many people’s minds and breaking that down and showing people,” she said. “A lot of people on social media are definitely younger generations, and teaching and showing them that this is what blind looks like, this is what a disability looks like, it’s not what you’re thinking it is. A lot of people have a hard time understanding it.”

Mental health is an important facet of her swimming. She’s been open about the sport as therapy, a safe space as her vision deteriorated. But she’s not immune to the toll elite training takes mentally. Her humor tempers an internal intensity and desire to succeed in the pool that has only ramped up after her taste of Paralympic gold. The post-Tokyo comedown was real for her, and with just three years to prepare for Paris, Pagonis feels simultaneously like she just got back from Tokyo and like Paris is about to be here. (Just after we spoke was the 500-day mark to the opening of the Paris Paralympics.) Winning a gold didn’t necessarily change the external expectations, but her own desire has grown.

She’s also endured recent training changes. Long home-schooled, in part to accommodate her swimming, she’s working with a new online coach as she tries to find a new training situation. She suffered a concussion that kept her out of the water in the winter. As an S11 swimmer, who relies on a tapper on deck to signal when she has to start her turns into the wall, regaining that feel and trust is a significant hurdle. She’s unsure if she’ll swim at the World Championships this summer, but she’s taking “baby steps” back into the pool with her plan trained on being at her best for Paris.

“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure that I feel like personally I need to succeed,” she said. “If I’m going to go somewhere and not succeed, I feel like it’s a very mentally draining situation that I’m in because you don’t want to go there and not show up and show off. It’s definitely super hard, but I know if I put the time and effort into it, I’m super confident in it. I’m sure Paris is going to be amazing.”

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