15-year old Koehn Boyd made history by breaking two Paralympic swim records at the Hartford Nationals in Alabama this summer.
Boyd has a condition known as prune-belly syndrome, which means he was born without stomach muscles. Regardless, he achieved two records, both in short distance and long-distance events
Boyd was adopted from Ukraine before he was two years old, and currently lives in Anoka. He started swimming at seven years old. He wanted to participate in sports, but due to his disability, contact sports were out of the question.
“Then somebody suggested I try swimming, and I tried it, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, because it was a sport I could do and do well,” Boyd said.
During his eight years of competing, he has climbed up to his ranking of fourth in Minnesota out of all athletes.
Thanks to swimming, Boyd is able to stay active and fit regardless of his disability, which normally causes some common exercises such as running to be unfeasible.
Boyd practices daily with the Edina Swim Club and by himself. “Whenever I’m not at practice, I’ll go to a YMCA to practice, and I just try to remember my end game goals and stay motivated,” Boyd said.
Teammate and sophomore at Edina High School Alex Alloco met Boyd as a competitor when he was nine years old, but a few years ago, Boyd joined Edina Swim Club and they became close friends.
“[Allocco] is so motivational and just all around a great person,” Boyd said.
Allocco is constantly surprised by Boyd’s strength.
“Well, I admire his resiliency. You never hear Koehn making excuses about, oh, I don’t have stomach muscles, or I can’t do this, he always pushes through,” Alloco said.
In the future, Boyd plans to follow some of his role models, including Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long. Jessica Long recently participated in the 2024 Paris Paralympics and won two gold medals. Boyd also hopes to go to the 2028 Olympics, and swim as a Division I athlete in college.
Caption was edited on October 24.
