Area Blind Swimmer Excels at Paralympics

Alumni Update

When certain elite high school athletes graduate, they are no longer fierce competitors. They look back to the high school glory days. But for the 2019 Haverford High School graduate, David Abrahams of Havertown, Pa. - a three-time PIAA AAA state qualifier in swimming - it was just a launching pad.

After closing out his high school swimming career by finishing second in the 100-yard -breast stroke in 55.15 at states, he then swam for Harvard.

Another huge milestone was that he represented the U.S. last month at the Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan. There, he won the silver medal in the 100-meter breast - stroke with a 1:04.38 clocking.

“When I finished, I didn’t know how I placed,” said Abrahams who is nearly blind. The uncertainty lasted about a minute ungtil he was told that he was second.

The Harvard junior began losing his vision at age 13 due to Stargardt. This disease causes a gradual degeneration of the macula, which is the area in the middle of the retina that makes possible the central vision needed for reading, driving, and recognizing colors.

“I have a big blind spot in the center of my eyes,” said Abrahams. “I can only use my peripheral vision, but that will slowly decrease.”

Despite his loss of vision, giving up swimming was never an option even to be considered.

“I started swimming when I was 6 because my three older brothers swam competitively,” said Abrahams. Swimming had become an important part of his life.

The key change to his swimming regiment was now he had to rely on more verbal communication.

He can still sense when he is about to hit the wall, except now his coaches have to tell him, because he can no longer rely just on his eyes.

He said that his teammates and coaches in high school and college supported him. They never had trepidation about having a nearly blind swimmer on the team. His talent, drive, and experience made him an invaluable swimmer.

Abrahams had the opportunity to compete in the U.S. Olympic swim trials in the 200-meter- breast, but he chose to just focus on qualifying for the Paralympics instead because he wanted to educate people about the Paralympics’ importance.

The Paralympics take place after the Olympics and usually in the same city. Only elite athletes with physical disabilities can try to qualify.

This year One-hundred-sixty-two nations competed at the Paralympics and the athlete count was 4,403. Cited at https://www.paralympic.org/news/tokyo-2020-sets-record-most-athletes-and-women-paralympic-games

The Paralympics should never be confused with the Special Olympics. The latter is for athletes with mental challenges, while the former includes athletes with physical limitations such as blindness and paralysis.

This was Abrahams first time competing at the Paralympics.

He said a big difference between swimming collegiately and swimming at the Paralympics is the type of people who follow swimming. In college, only people interested in collegiate swimming will come and cheer and support the swimmers, but for the Paralympics, more people in general attend and cheer. People who could care less about sports such as swimming, track, and judo will show up at the Paralympics and cheer because it is about country against country.