Long Island's Anastasia Pagonis back for another chance at Paralympic gold in swimming

Eight months after losing all of her usable vision, Anastasia Pagonis’ return to the pool provided a brutal introduction to her new reality.

On the first stroke Pagonis swam, the then-14-year-old said she crashed into a lane line and started bleeding from her nose. Immediately it became clear: Gone were the days of independence in the pool. Now, she would struggle to maintain a straight path while swimming and require the assistance of a “tapper,” an experienced guide who uses a pole to tap the swimmer when it's time to make a turn.

Pagonis had sought comfort from her beloved sport that day, but instead got the opposite.

“I was like, 'I’m never doing this again,' ” Pagonis, now 20, told Newsday. “And I gave up that day.”

Emphasis on “that day.” Because the next day, Pagonis was back in the pool, determined to keep trying. The rest is history now etched in the Paralympic record books.

Only three years after she veered into that lane line and bloodied her nose, the Nassau County native set a world record and won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle and also won bronze in the 200-meter individual medley at the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021.

At this summer’s Paris Paralympic games, Pagonis is set to defend her record and contend for more medals.

Peter Pagonis, Anastasia’s father, likes to summarize his daughter’s journey by saying she has taken the lemons life has dealt her and made lemonade out of them.

A wealth of victories, social media followers, sponsorships and a golden key to the Town of Hempstead are evidence of just how much Pagonis has accomplished.

Even patrons of Peter’s restaurant, Louie’s Manhasset, follow her journey. Peter said he is always getting asked about Anastasia and when her next race is, and the restaurant is planning watch parties for some of her races in Paris.

“Anyone who follows her for a minute becomes a fan of her,” Pagonis’ coach, Darryn Solotoff, said.

Perhaps most impressive is that her persistence transcends results. Regardless of whether she medals in Paris, she has made enough metaphorical lemonade out of adversity to last a lifetime.

“I'm excited, no matter what she does,” Peter said. “If she gets on the podium or doesn’t get on the podium, my wife and I are still going to be as happy as we can be.”

Pagonis' journey to Paris 2024

While the Tokyo Paralympics marked a major milestone for Pagonis, their delay until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in two deviations from the typical experience: strictly limited attendance and a three-year cycle ahead of the next Paralympics instead of the usual four.

“I feel like this will be my first real Paralympics since Tokyo was during COVID,” Pagonis said. “I’m really excited to be able to experience Paris and everything. I think it’s going to be amazing.”

To the casual observer, it may seem like Pagonis simply stayed the course after bursting onto the scene in 2021. The truth, however, is that the encore for her golden run in Tokyo was far from a guarantee.

In the three years after Tokyo, Pagonis has overcome two formidable challenges. She also partnered with Solotoff less than a year ago.

Pagonis competes in the S11 category, the designation for totally blind swimmers who swim with blackened goggles and require tappers on both ends of the pool.

After Tokyo, Pagonis suffered a concussion and a neck injury when a late tap resulted in her swimming into a pool wall. She could not have prevented the accident but still had to shoulder the adversity.

And in June 2023, she underwent shoulder surgery to repair what Peter described as a “severed labrum” that resulted from the toll of high-volume training that “many swimmers don’t come back from.”

Pagonis’ recovery began with physical therapy, which also unexpectedly resulted in a connection to Solotoff. During an appointment, Pagonis was discussing her comeback plans when one of Solotoff’s other athletes overheard and recommended him. Solotoff, a Long Beach-based lawyer, has over 20 years of coaching experience.

“I needed someone who was going to be able to kind of help me with ... finding that sweet spot of making the sport fun, also training super hard to keep that world title, but at the same time not hurting myself and reinjuring myself,” Pagonis said.

Solotoff said he created a training regimen focused on quality of practice over quantity, which paid close attention to technique and served her recovering shoulder well. Solotoff even swam with blacked-out goggles himself to better understand how he could help Pagonis handle the difficulties of swimming without vision, he said.

“I believe in the model that if you can work smarter and still work hard, that’s better than just working hard,” Solotoff said.

Pagonis will compete in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle races, along with her 400-meter freestyle specialty, so she had to prepare for both sprint and distance events, which most swimmers don't do, Solotoff said.

“We’ve worked on developing different strokes for different distances, and highlighting the parts of her stroke that are elite, mainly her pull and her kick,” Solotoff said.

Taking time to closely examine and tinker with form, Solotoff said, allowed him to teach Pagonis how to protect her shoulders and swim more efficiently. This detailed, slowed down work was beneficial because, like many athletes who display incredible talent at a young age, Pagonis’ form was not exactly perfected. Pagonis already was historically fast, but Solotoff saw potential for even more speed.

“I've only been fully training since January, but I am doing better than I was before, and I'm so excited to show everyone my comeback,” Pagonis said.

Outside the pool

When she isn’t swimming, there’s a good chance you’ll see Pagonis with her guide dog, Radar, whom she got in 2020 from the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind in Smithtown through the New York Islanders Puppy with a Purpose program.

“Radar is amazing,” Pagonis said. “He’s my best friend, and he has changed my life. I had no independence, and now ... we can do anything together.”

Pagonis also dedicates time to TikTok, where she has 2.5 million followers, and Instagram, where she has more than 400,000 followers.

At first, Pagonis said she used social media as a therapeutic escape, but she now aims to use her platforms to combat ignorance about disabilities.

“You don't have to put me in this box that you think I have to be where I look a certain way, act a certain way and be a certain way,” Pagonis said. “I want to show them that I can dress cute, I can wear makeup, I can be a professional athlete, and I can do that all by myself.”

Whether it's through a makeup brand partnership, an explanation of how she swims, a lift at a local gym, or her rendition of the latest TikTok trend, Pagonis said she is committed to showing that a visual impairment does not define her or anybody else with one.

It’s the same commitment she exemplifies in the pool, regardless of result. Both as an athlete and advocate, Pagonis continues to make lemonade out of life-changing adversity.

“My hope is that I ... [am] showing another little girl out there that has a disability that she can do anything she wants,” Pagonis said. “She might not be able to go right over the mountain, but she'll find her way around.”