Paralympics: McKenzie Coan Has Come a Long Way From Garage Pool to Tokyo<\/strong><\/p>\n

McKenzie Coan<\/strong> expected to spend part of the summer of 2020 in Tokyo. Instead, the two-time Paralympian spent it far from Japan\u2019s mega-metropolis.<\/p>\n

Very far, indeed, as in her hometown of Clarkesville, Georgia, with a \u201cteeny, tiny\u201d population of 1,754.<\/p>\n

For eight months, Coan was back in Georgia, sheltering from the COVID-19 pandemic and its disruptions to her training with her parents. Like many of us non-elite swimmers, salvation came via mail order: An eight-foot pool and tether she set up at home, saving her from the imperfect mimicry and monotony of bands and weights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went online and I started doing a little bit of research and I went to my parents and I literally asked them, can I get this eight-foot tethered swimming pool and can I put it in your garage?\u201d Coan said. \u201cAnd there was a moment of just dead silence from them, staring at them, and I remember my dad goes, \u2018are you serious?\u2019 and I was like, \u2018yeah, I found it online and they have one left in stock.\u2019 And they were like, \u2018yeah, let\u2019s do it, let\u2019s go.\u2019<\/p>\n

$\"McKenzie$
McKenzie Coan; Photo Courtesy: CG Sports<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cSo I ordered it and it came, and my mom and I put it together the wrong way the first time, so we had to completely disassemble it and put it back together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assembly issues solved, there was also the matter of sweeping splashed-out water from the garage floor. But Coan, who fortunately for the pool\u2019s dimensions stands 4-foot-3, describes the improvised training setup with utopian retrospect. With music blaring, the garage pool was less silver lining that genuine source of joy for five months of what could\u2019ve been a dark time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good time,\u201d she said. \u201cI had the music blasting. Every day, I\u2019d have to sweep the water out of the garage so it didn\u2019t completely ruin the floor. But training at home in the garage was a really unique and kind of fun experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pool is emblematic of how Coan has recalibrated expectations in the quest<\/a> to swim in Tokyo, which will be her third Paralympic Games. She holds three gold medals and one silver, all in S7 competition from Rio in 2016<\/a>. She added four gold medals and one silver at the 2017 World Championships and two golds and three silvers<\/a> at 2019 Worlds<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Olympic and Paralympic postponement, announced in March 2020, was no surprise to Coan, who\u2019d come to see it as inevitable as the world grappled with COVID-19. Her first reactions were coupled. She felt the quandary of how to extend her training another year (Coan turned 25 in June and was accepted to Rutgers Law School for 2022<\/a>). But she also grasped the opportunity for another year of improvement, however briefly delayed by a misplaced Allen wrench that might have been.<\/p>\n
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A post shared by McKenzie Coan (@mckenzie_coan)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n