Mallory wedgeman hello my friends and welcome to my channel if you're new here be sure to subscribe to my channel and turn the notifications on Valerie wedgman born March 26 1989 is an American paralympic swimmer on January 21st 2008 18 year old Mallory wedgeman was paralyzed from the waist down following a routine medical procedure her third and final epidural injection for back pain caused by post-herpanic neuralgia the next 13 years brought challenges frustrations successes and triumphs as she became a paralympic gold and bronze medalist 15-time world champion swimmer and author career she became a T-10 complete paraplegic after an epidural injection to treat post shingles back pain in 2008. she broke many world records in the S7 classification and won multiple gold medals at the IPC Swimming World Championships in 2009 and 2010. at the 2012 Paralympics she was controversially reclassified to S8 a class for swimmers with less impairment she won the s850 meter freestyle event in a new paralympic record time just under four months after becoming paralyzed Mallory was back in the pool with her eyes on gold at the 2012 paralympic games wedgeman trained for the 2016 paralympic games in Rio De Janeiro Brazil and actively building upon her career outside of the pool through motivational speaking Mallory was featured in the current a documentary produced by make a hero a non-profit organization focused on inspiring individuals with disabilities to enjoy the freedom of adaptive Sports in June 2021 the U.S announced the 34 paralympic swimmers who would be going to the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo the women's team was wedgeman Jessica long Mackenzie Cohen Rebecca Myers and Elizabeth marks Wegman would go on to win several medals and break two records during the Tokyo games on April 14 2022 wedgeman was named to the roster to represent the United States at the 2022 World Paris swimming championships honors and awards World disabled swimmer of the year 2009 2010. USA swimming disabled swimmer of the Year triska Al Zorn award 2009 2010 2011. best female athlete with a disability is spy award 2011. thank you for watching [Applause]