Having Already Defied The Odds To Grow to be An Elite Swimmer, Koehn Boyd Appears to be like To Remian ‘Unstoppable’ At Para Pacs

Koehn Boyd can thank his love of meals for serving to him understand that he’s a quick swimmer.

Boyd had been swimming for only some weeks when he attended his first swim meet at 7 years outdated. He requested his father for a snack earlier than a race, however his father informed him that he’d want to attend till he was finished swimming earlier than he might eat something.

That made sense to Boyd. When it was time, he jumped into the 50-meter pool, received his 100 race after which strolled again to the place his father was sitting to eagerly obtain his snack.

“So, I get out, walk all the way around the pool back to my dad, grab the snack and sit down and start eating it,” mentioned Boyd, a local of Ramsey, Minnesota. “And once I sat down and finished, like once I got back to my dad with my snack, the next kid touched (the wall for) second place.”

A decade later, Boyd hasn’t misplaced his urge for food for being one of many world’s quickest Para swimmers. In June, the 17-year-old put collectively a dominant efficiency on the 2026 U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships in Boise, Idaho, to change into the primary athlete to ever be named the Swimmer of the Meet for 3 consecutive years.

He received 5 occasions at nationals, together with three on the opening day of the meet.

Boyd will delay the beginning of his senior 12 months of highschool a number of days to compete at his first Para Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, which begins on Friday and runs by means of Sunday in Walnut, California. The S10 swimmer plans to compete in three occasions — the 100 freestyle, the 100 fly and the 200 particular person medley.

While in Southern California for the worldwide meet, Boyd received a chance to see the place the pool for the Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028 might be constructed. He hopes to make his Paralympic debut there in two years.

“It’s kind of cool to just visualize where it’s going to be,” Boyd mentioned, “so positively, positively that’s the objective — LA ‘28.”

As much as he appreciates all the accolades and medals that he has been winning lately, Boyd said he’s extra focused on inspiring folks along with his performances within the pool. After all, he admitted that somebody born in Ukraine with out belly muscle groups shouldn’t be capable to swim.

“I think what swimming did was allow me to just kind of be in an area of competition with other people and just feel like the same (as them) because I feel limitless in the water,” Boyd mentioned. “Like truly, I feel like I’m unstoppable.”

That wasn’t at all times the case for him, although.

Boyd was born with prune stomach syndrome, a uncommon situation that resulted in him having no abdomen muscle groups. If he’s mendacity on his again, it’s bodily not possible for him sit up since he has no core. He was additionally born with hip dysplasia, which provides him a really restricted vary of movement in his proper leg.

Since Boyd has stability points out of the water, he determined to present swimming a attempt as a child after a household pal really useful it.

“I think I just use a lot of my back muscles, and I’m able to manipulate the water very well. So, with my legs and arms, I think I’m able to just pull and kick kind of like an able-bodied human,” Boyd mentioned. “But like (with the) butterfly and breaststroke, you kind of need a core to lift your body and head out of the water. And I think my body has just learned to use my back muscles.”

Boyd mentioned the butterfly is surely his greatest stroke. And although he’s at all times the final swimmer off the blocks at first of a race, he “makes up for it in the water.”

In September 2025, he received a pair of silver medals on the Singapore 2025 World Para Swimming Championships within the 200 IM SM10 and 400 freestyle.

Boyd reached one other milestone this summer season when he dedicated to swim for the University of South Dakota, which he considers an particularly large accomplishment for the reason that Coyotes are an NCAA Division I program. It will give him one other likelihood to swim towards able-bodied athletes and present folks that he has no limitations.

“I’m super excited to represent Team USA and on a college team, specifically D1. I think that’s very cool,” Boyd mentioned. “It’s definitely been one of my goals for a very long time, so I’m very excited to have accomplished that one and checked it off (my list).”

Alex Abrams has written about Olympic sports activities for greater than 15 years, together with as a reporter for main newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a contract contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.