60: Earned the Gold with Paralympian Gia Pergolini

Published: May 26, 2022 Duration: 00:35:48 Category: People & Blogs

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[Music] if only life were a straight path to our desired destination wouldn't life be so much easier yeah maybe but those unexpected zigzags in our path teach us that life's tough struggles have greater purpose than we ever imagined stories and strategies are our focus for season four zigzagging one host melanie brown chats with courageous women who share their stories of encountering zigzags and how they fought to overcome them be assured their stories will inspire and encourage you but we know warm and fuzzy feelings aren't enough to equip you to fight those challenging zigzags in your path so this season our guests are joining us for another episode to share strategies mindsets and habits that strengthened and empowered them during their toughest seasons join us in declaring zigzags may interrupt our path but they will not detour us we will keep moving forward [Music] thanks for joining me for today's interview with paralympian gia pergolini a few olympic facts before we jump into our interview did you know that since the first olympic games in 1896 the summer olympics have only been canceled three times and all three times were a result of world wars and not until the 2020 olympics had the games ever been postponed and as you know they were postponed due to the global pandemic at the time the games were postponed dia was a 16 year old high school student who had been training to compete in her favorite event the 100 meter backstroke when the paralympics were finally rescheduled for the summer of 2021 in tokyo dia was ready this now 18 year old woman is simply adorable she is filled with joy she is a fighter not only to navigate life with 30 vision but also as a fierce competitor in the pool join me for my conversation with world record holder and gold medalist gia pergolini [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah i am so excited to have you on the show thank you i'm glad to be here this last month even this last year has been extremely busy for you you just graduated high school congratulations thank you so much it has been such a crazy year this june actually i'm going to world championships for um for swimming in portugal i'm training for that right now i'm really excited and then coming august i'll be moving to miami to go to college at florida international university that is so exciting i have vacation plans but i don't have any kind of plans like you do that's so exciting it's i'm very excited so as far as the championship in portugal what do you do in order to train for that oh gosh i practice a lot that's kind of an understatement but i practice monday through saturday and i have to swim doubles which is swim two practices a day on tuesdays and thursdays but that's now that's not including my summer schedule my summer schedule is way more hectic and way crazier than my school year-round schedule this summer i think i have three doubles in a week and each practice is either two and a half hours or three hours long that's crazy there's a lot of time in the pool it's a lot yep yes well obviously you enjoy it if you're willing to spend that much time i do enjoy it majority of the time sometimes i want to sleep but i enjoy it i can understand that too but you have to put in that hard work in order to become a paralympian of course a lot of work so that didn't happen too long ago either hope happened this past august yes and we're going to get to that but i want to make sure we start with your story so that when people are listening they understand what a big deal it is that at 18 years old you can say you are an olympian in my mind that is incredible oh my gosh thank you it is just amazing so let's go back to where you even started with swimming how old were you when you started taking swimming lessons i was three i believe when i started doing swimming lessons but it was until i was five or six i joined year-round swimming and um my mother actually put me in year around swimming because i just loved being underwater and i would always jump in the pool without my floaties on so they were like okay we need to get this girl in lessons i was a little adventurous especially i have two older brothers that would play with me in the pool and push me in the pool and so i had to fend for myself in the water that's fantastic so you knew from early on that this was something that you really enjoyed yes so take us forward from there you were doing swimming did you do any other sports yes when i was younger um around third grade-ish i feel like every kid goes through that stage where they just do a bunch of sports at once and sees what fits but i did soccer tennis gymnastics lacrosse and swimming wow yep that is fantastic now part of why you are a para olympian rather than an olympian is because you have a disease that has impacted you such that you qualify for the paralympians when did all of that come about i have stargardt's disease which is a genetic eye disease that only lets me see peripherally i can't really see details but until i get really really close but i've always had it my whole life but it wasn't until kindergarten in first grade where i actually had to start doing some sort of work on paper or looking at the board where i noticed i couldn't see as well as the other kids and my mother took me to all these doctors and the teachers were telling her that there's something wrong but they don't know what and the doctors didn't know what and it was it wasn't until fourth grade actually so from kindergarten to fourth grade no one knew what was wrong with me some some people thought i was actually faking it which is goodness crazy too but in fourth grade they looked in the back of my eye because that's where my disease is and they found that i had stargardt's disease that is a big thing for a very young person yeah to take on and to live with how how did that impact your life going forward once you had the diagnosis i was so young that i didn't really comprehend the seriousness of it sure plus i had it all my life so it's not like i know some people that had 20 20 vision perfect vision and then lost it and so they know what they missed out missed out on and so for me it was just normal i had to get stuff to help me in school like i got a video magnifier and all this stuff it was not until actually high school that i realized how serious it was because right all the kids my age are learning how to drive and then they're getting their license and i can never drive or get my license so that kind of hit me the hardest but other than that it's completely normal i tried not to let it stop me that is interesting in so many ways i am a special education teacher and i've never had a student that had any kind of vision issues like you have but i i know the struggle that those students have when they have a disability and how they feel different than their peers and their peers don't understand and i'm even thinking back before you were diagnosed you didn't know any differently because as you said that's the way it's always been when we're very young we don't have the words to describe it to somebody else yeah because it's just the way that we always have been and we don't know that it should be a different way and if they're asking you questions i would assume you can't say well i can see peripherally yeah you can't yeah you don't you don't have those words it's really hard to explain to them because i i don't know what they see and they don't know why yes i can see so it's confusing both ways i can only imagine as far as school though uh how did that impact your ability to do the school work i know you said you had some modifications and some accommodations so i have i've had great teachers now and in the past that helped me helped me with my school work and trying to see the board i can't really see the board so they would they would either send me notes or after class i would go up to them and they would tell me what i missed on the board and that was the best help that i could have but now in our day and age we use a lot of stuff on the computer yes and so that is really good for the visual impairment community because there's a lot of accessibilities on the computer for visual impairment so i can zoom in on all my paperwork and all this stuff so if we're doing like testing quizzes on paper i usually i have a video magnifier where i could put it on the piece of paper and it will zoom in as far as i need and it can also change the different colors on the paper i prefer preferably love inverted colors which changes black to white very interesting yeah yep this is probably going to be a tough question for you but i think it's important for the listeners to understand how this impacted your peer relationships oh yes i love top questions i can certainly come up with a few more when i was younger i did get bullied a lot and i did lose a lot of friends and not only was i angry about me losing friends but i was also angry it started mostly in fourth grade so by the time i figured out what i had i was angry at that and that kind of affected my friendships and i just thought i was alone for a lot of it and um i was very i was a very angry girl from fourth to sixth grade i just i just felt like no one understands and all this stuff and kids were making fun of me and it was not until seventh grade i found i actually started finding friends but i was still fighting my inner demons and it was it was it was a really tough road and high school was really where i found true friends that i love to this day right now it's my friendships both or yeah and in school it's it's been a lot better so yeah because friends are important you would feel isolated and alone even though i have to wear contacts or glasses i don't understand how you have to view the world is god a part of this at all i did rely on god for a lot of it i would pray to him um almost every day and i would write i would write in my diary a lot to him it was basically it was to myself and to him just helped me guide me to a better place in my life and i always knew that he has a plan for me if i can fight these battles then i know i'll come out stronger in the end so yes um i did go to a catholic school for nine years so god was part of my life almost every day it really helped it really did help i can see how that would be um very important to have someone that you can speak to especially our god if you're having difficulty with peer relationships or you're frustrated or school is hard because maybe the accommodations aren't just right yet all of those things you are kind of on the other end of it at this point with graduating and going on to college i'm assuming you have a swim scholarship yes so let's talk about how swimming was uh an important part of your life through all of this and how it helped you did it did it help you oh definitely that's an understatement so tell me about that uh well when i was younger um when i was going through a lot with like i said friendships and my inner demons swimming was and still is so therapeutic to me it's just me and my thoughts looking at a black line for hours and hours and just thinking and sometimes i would pray during that time and um if you want to let out a scream or two you can't you can underwater and no one will hear you and the water is crippling yeah yes i still do it now i would like scream underwater and it helps so much and doing a hard practice and fulfilling that hard practice it's the best feeling in the world pushing yourself yeah you just feel so accomplished and i love the feeling that i get after practice my face is all red my mom my mom drives me so when she picks me up she's like your face is all red you must have a great practice i was like it was terrible but i'm glad i did it sometimes the things that really push us frustrated during the moment but then afterwards when you've accomplished it yeah you're glad that you went through it yes swimming is definitely a very very important part of your life tell me how you were a swimmer and going to just daily practices to then becoming an olympian i want to hear the journey of that because it doesn't just okay i think i might be an olympian and yeah i think i'll go to tokyo next week yeah i don't think that works that way tell me about that journey like i said i started when i was six and then for about seven years um so when i was 13 my swim coach at the time came up to me and he was like gia have you ever heard of paralympics and i was like what back then i was very naive to paralympics i didn't know a lot of information about it um and there he was like it's um where you can play a sport even if you're disabled and i was like what i'm not disabled what are you talking about and so let me stop you right there i love that you just said that that you're not disabled why can you say that at the time i was pretty successful for my age in swimming and i didn't think my vision affected my swimming that much and so when he was like for disabled people i just thought about people i don't know that wasn't me like that had like missing limbs like i said i didn't know a lot of information on paralympics so i just assumed i was a regular swimmer and so when i went home and did my research and there's i saw people like me with visual problems going to rio i was like oh my gosh this is so cool and my mom was like maybe you should try it out go to a swim meet i went to a para swimming and it was in augusta georgia and i'm so many amazing people so many strong and powerful people that have these um disabilities i know a girl that was fully blind her name's maclean hermes she actually grew up in georgia and she's the first paralympic swimmer i ever met and um she went to rio and i was like oh my gosh this is so cool i can't believe you can do this and not let your inflictions affect you i did the swim meet fell in love with it and then next thing you knew i was going to canada and what was in canada um pera nationals and i was 13 at the time and um that's incredible thank you so much it was so cool and then i got to meet more paralympic swimmers and i was star struck by them and so i was like i want to pursue this this is so cool next thing you know a couple months later i was in berlin getting classified you are a world traveler it was crazy um that one of the head coaches in canada came up to my mom and said we want her to come to berlin to get classified my mom was like what i'm like she's just 13. um and this is her like first big pair of me they were like yeah we want her to get classified they basically and berlin had to prove that i was visually impaired and if so what class i would be in so the visual impairment class is from s11 to s13 i'm an s13 they classified me as an s13 so i have the most vision out of all the visual impairment classifications when i was in berlin i got i got a world record and my 200 back but it lasted four minutes in 20 20 seconds until the girl in the next heat beat it so so that was a world record yes goodness that is incredible thank you and you were 13. yes it was crazy wow thank you berlin was super fun got to meet lifelong friends that i'm still friends with now um yes people who understand yeah yeah i i love them to that they're amazing people but then i had to go to colorado for world championships world championship trials i went there and then i made my first worlds team um which is in mexico city which was in mexico city in december so in one year i went from augusta georgia to canada to berlin to mexico city um all when i was 13. just crazy it was crazy exciting and how many memories and the thrill as you said of meeting people that were already champions in this this sport and this that you were so interested in i guess already starting to form goals for yourself yeah so when i was going through all that everybody was like you can make it to tokyo and i was like what it was like my dream of being a professional athlete was like coming true and i was like okay that's my goal so for the next three years i was just training training and then i made it to world championships in london i in mexico city and in london i got second place in the hundred back the there was a very strong italian girl um who was my biggest competitor in the backstroke she's really fast but i said to people i was like the only way you could be to italian is with another italian there you go i'm half italian so i guess i was like okay so let me stop you there because i know from notes that i have that leading up to tokyo you had a little bit of a crisis moment where you're like i don't know if i can do this or not oh definitely what brought that on in 2020 obviously the pandemic happened and so there was just a lot going on and then when i got back into swimming um i felt strong i felt good i loved i loved my coach so it was it was going great and then it was my junior year i started losing my hair and so i i recently i have had alopecia and when i was 14 but it wasn't severe i lost my eyebrows and um i want to say like 20 of my hair but i got it all back i was doing fine and then my junior year happened and i was this is actually my first time telling anyone this um i feel very on the media yeah i kept losing hair and i lost i want to say 85 of my hair oh goodness um i didn't lose my eyebrows and that's a blessing because me without eyebrows not very pretty i understand but um i lost 85 my hair and then i had to shave it all off and for me that was a huge deal because my hair was basically the pinpoint of like my confidence i i loved long hair i didn't even want to cut an inch off of it when i when it was long and healthy i had to shave it all off and at that point i was struggling a lot with confidence and i wasn't swimming as well as i wanted to and i was just very depressed and angry that it wasn't growing back and um i wasn't successful in the water as i wanted to be especially um the nerves for tokyo adding on to that it was kind of weird um when it when i shaved off all my hair about two weeks later it started growing back and so i was like oh thank jesus yes yes i would agree because i kind of like my curly hair too so i understand if i were to lose all my hair that would be a big deal and especially as a young person yeah um that's really challenging to already have something that you're struggling with and that you're fighting to overcome and then now now you're having to face another issue yeah yes and all during the pandemic because all of us struggled immensely during the pandemic in different ways but during that time i think mom if i'm not mistaken sat you down and asked you if you were still interested in going and did you want to quit or did you want to keep going what happened for a little bit um my parents noticed that i was going through a rough time so my dad came up with the idea to talk to my coach nick graves um if i wanted to take a two-week break and a two-week break is like a year in swimming if you take two weeks off when you come back it's going to be tough coming back i was like yeah i want to take a two-week break just to rest my mind and be alone for a little bit and so i talked to my coach and the stubborn man that he is said i don't think that would be a good idea i talked to my parents and there was a practice a very emotional practice where i was not happy i was bawling my eyes out the whole time and my mom sat me down and said do you want to quit and for a minute there i wanted to say yes but i was like in five years from now i know i'm gonna regret it so i would have looking back if i quit i would have definitely regretted it so i'm glad i didn't quit but i got back onto my horse and [Music] about three weeks later i had the best practice in a very long time and ever since then each practice was getting better and better and i felt so fast so strong in the water and my hair was growing back i was still not really confident in my hair i wore wigs for a while i still kind of do when i want to look cute but i was just very happy and never felt stronger in the pool when we struggle and all of us struggle in different ways there are always temptations to give up and quit and that is a crucial moment and as you said for a moment there yeah i really wanted to throw in the towel and just be done with this right yep what was it that besides the fact that you thought you might regret it what was the part of your love for swimming that made you say i'm going to keep going oh my goodness at that point i wasn't swimming just for myself i was swimming for my teammates for my coach and for my family and so their love and support in and out of the water was what pushed me also in the pandemic when i took three months out of the water by the end of it i missed swimming so much so i knew that one day i'm i'm gonna miss it so much and want to get back in so i shouldn't quit now i love hearing that especially from from a young person because so often it's just easier to just give up when you're young because you don't have all those life experiences to draw from but now this moment that you made that decision that i'm not going to give up because i want to continue i don't want to regret this that's something years from now 20 years from now 40 years from now when you are going through some other kind of struggle you're going to look back on that and you're going to say i didn't quit then i'm not going to quit now and so that becomes your experience later on so you are very blessed and having an experience like that early on and wow it paid off yeah fast forward to tokyo let's talk about the paralympic games yep that summer i was training so i didn't have summer um i was training so much didn't miss one day of practice i went to tokyo the trials to make it to tokyo and um i got a world record in my hundred back wow and um you're just a beast thank you you're just impressive thank you and every time i swim the 100 back there's always a prelims and then there's there's a finals i would get faster and faster each race and so when it came tokyo time i was i was ready i was pumped i saw the pool i swam the 100 fly um the day before the 100 back and i loved the pool it was an amazing pool i was having so much fun i was confident um i had a great race it was a great start to the meet and then the next day was the hundred back and i tell everyone i was definitely 20 times more nervous a month prior to the games than i was behind the block uh for my hundred back my hundred back is my main event if yes i noticed with all the awards and and uh records and such the majority of them are the backstroke i think that's just great yeah so backstrokes my baby the race i was mostly training for and had my um hopes of gold for and so when the hundred back came along i was pumped i was ready i was confident and my training and what my coaches did and it was so much fun i got in the water swam my little heart out and i got a world record and the gold medal and i finally beat the italian girl i hope she doesn't listen to this i don't think she would listen to this but hi if you are you know who you are it's okay if you beat her that just means that she's gonna train all the harder for the next you need to be one as well definitely yeah definitely so what did it feel like to stand up there and to see all the people cheering and to accept the gold medal around your neck oh my gosh it was surreal hearing the national anthem and looking up at the flag it was i've been dreaming about that moment for four years three to four years and just seeing it play out and come true it was just amazing i wish i wish my whole family was there due to the due to covid there was hardly an audience it was a really special moment but the funny thing is a lot of athletes who got a medal would tell you it lasts about five minutes and then you're ready to go to the next next challenge it was surreal in those three minutes three to five minutes i'm very grateful for it to this day but now i'm focusing on the next challenge that's because you're a competitor yes yes i i love hearing that you already have the next goal in mind that you're already working towards it that is fantastic and especially at such a young age and i know i keep bringing that up but you have gone through a lot as an 18 year old yes you are not letting any of those things defeat you or discourage you yeah or stop you that is amazing for somebody of any age but especially a young person because it's so easy to get so focused on peers and social media and boys all of them and those none of those are bad from what i can tell that those things while they're important to you you have your sights pun intended on bigger and better things that will carry you no telling where they will carry you in the future because i'm sure that you have met some incredible people just because you're a paralympian totally like me absolutely well it's almost time for us to end sadly i did want to ask do you have that one thing that one takeaway that somebody that's listening if they're going through a tough time and they think i just want to quit what would you tell them about continuing to pursue your goals and to not give up from my experience the best advice that i can give is there's always something that god is planning for you after you are done going through this tough time i knew when i was in a place where i thought there was no hope and all this stuff looking back i realized there was a bigger plan for me and if you quit now you will regret it that's that's my biggest takeaway you're a strong person and no matter what life throws at you there there will be um something at the end that will just bring you a lot of joy it's the saying is true at the end of every storm there's a rainbow i i yeah there most definitely is i love how you have put that and that is so important for all of us to remember because we're going to hit those zigzags we're going to get those struggles throughout our lives our path is not one little straight line to the end it's just not it's going to zigzag all over the place and every time it zigzags we have to just say we are just going to keep moving forward mm-hmm definitely do yeah it has been such a joy to spend time [Music] very happy to be here so excited i was so excited for this i want us to keep in touch as you go through college especially so that i can follow you as you continue to pursue your dreams definitely that is exciting for me to be on the sidelines cheering you on thank you so as we finish we always end with our tagline and that is when life zigs and zags keep moving forward well said beautiful [Music] you

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