Mallory Weggemann’s life story is a study in how to overcome setbacks.
The world first saw her remarkable resilience at the London Paralympic Games. On Sept. 2, 2012, Weggemann and seven other of the world’s top women Paralympic swimmers gathered at the London Aquatics Centre for the final of the women’s S8 classification 50-meter freestyle competition. Three days before, Weggemann—an American who had competed as a S7 Paralympic swimmer and broken world records while winning multiple gold medals at the world championships in 2010—learned that the International Paralympic Committee had reclassified her to S8, a level for swimmers with less impairment.