Toccoa Native McKenzie Coan Earns Silver, Back In Paris Paralympic Pool Tomorrow

Toccoa Native McKenzie Coan will need to make room for yet another medal in her extensive collection after placing second in the world and earning a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympics this past Monday in London.

Six-time Paralympic medalist Coan, now a Clarkesville resident, competed in the women’s 400-meter freestyle S7 on Monday, where USA secured the top two podium spots when Morgan Stickney of Cary, North Carolina, broke  the Paralympic record to win the gold and Coan took silver. Meanwhile on Monday, Gia Pergolini, a native of Roswell now attending college in Florida, earned her second medal of Paris 2024, adding a women’s 50-meter freestyle S13 silver medal to her women’s 100-meter backstroke S13 gold earned last Friday.

In a comment to the media, Coan said competing with her USA teammates made Monday’s competition even more meaningful, saying, “It’s really special (to share the podium with Morgan). Before we left that call room, I looked around and there were three Team USA caps in there and that’s a really special feeling. To look to my left and my right and see my teammates and the people that I grind with was really powerful,” she said.”

Coan, who was the 2021 Toccoa Christmas Parade Grand Marshal and is the daughter of Dr. Marc and Teresa Coan, was diagnosed at 19 days old with Osteogenesis imperfecta, which is a genetic bone disorder also known as brittle bone disease. Characteristics of the disease include brittle bones, hearing loss, scoliosis and dwarfism – all of which afflict Coan. It was aquatherapy for her condition that bred a love of the water and led her to competitive swimming, which led her to becoming a 4 time Paralympian.

Coan told WNEG News in 2021 that she really does not like to slow down, saying “I like to juggle a lot of things. I never like to be bored so this keeps things interesting.”

In the past 2 years, Coan lived up to those words, when she was forced to withdraw from the world championships in the summer of 203 when a respiratory infection turned into an ear infection that turned into a diagnosis of Bell’s palsy, a neurological disorder that causes paralysis or weakness on one side of the face.

In an interview with USParaswimming.org, Coan said “I couldn’t move my mouth at all, couldn’t open or close my left eye, couldn’t breathe out of my left nostril, couldn’t hear out of my left ear. My whole left side of my face wasn’t functioning. They put a pin in the side of my face, and I couldn’t tell you where they put it.”

Two days later, Coan was back in the pool for practice, and on September 23, 2023, U.S. Paralympics Swimming named her as part of the team that would travel to the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile, a qualification opportunity for this year’s Paris Paralympic Games.

When the Parapan American Games ended, Coan flew home with six new silver and bronze medals packed in her suitcase and began preparing for the Paris games.

Coan is also the author of Breaking Free, a book she wrote over the course of the pandemic, and began Law School at Rutgers in 2022. 

Coan will return to competition tomorrow, Sept. 4 in the 100-meter freestyle S7.

Other Georgian’s competing at the Paris Games are Ryan Medrano of Savannah, Bailey Moody of Alpharetta, Mat Simpson of Atlanta and Jarryd Wallace of Athens. 

To find out more about Coan’s athletic career, visit her profile on the National Collegiate Athletic Association website, her TeamUSA profile, and her own website.

 

Coan:
Paralympian 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024 – four golds and three silvers

Eight-time World Champion

Current world record holder

Multi-time American record holder

16-time World Para Swimming Championships medalist