Community Corner

A Swimmer With Special Fortitude

Dickerson Middle School student Maya Kahn is competing in the World Dwarf Games this weekend.

For Maya Kahn, swimming has been much more than a way to stay cool in the summer and enjoy spending time with friends.

When the rising 7th grader at Dickerson Middle School dives into a pool this weekend, it will also represent more than her biggest test as an aspiring competitive swimmer.

Maya's appearance in five events in the World Dwarf Games in East Lansing, Mich., is a milestone for a young woman who is aiming for some rather big dreams. 

Maya and her mother, Diane Harris, leave today. Maya's events include the 25-meter backstroke, the 25-meter breaststroke, the 25-meter butterfly, the 100-meter individual medley and the 4 x 25-meter freestyle relay. 

The World Dwarf Games "allows her to compete against people in her own classification," Diane says. 

To prepare, Maya has been swimming in meets in Alabama, Ohio and Minnesota, mostly in Paralympic-sanctioned competition. "We have to travel so far because there just aren't many meets like this," her mother adds.

That may sound like a full plate, but Maya is also shooting for the Paralympics someday.

A friend she met through BlazeSports Georgia, which helps disabled youths and adults enjoy sports activities, made the U.S. Paralympic team last summer. 

"They went to the White House," Maya says. "I really want to get there."

She also was inspired by meeting U.S. Paralympic swimmer Erin Popovich, who was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, and has won 14 gold medals. 

Her other swimming favorites are American Olympic gold medalists Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte, whom she avidly watched in London last summer.

Maya took up swimming six or seven years ago, and regularly works out at the Atlanta Swim Academy in East Cobb. But for more specialized training, she travels to Agnes Scott College in Decatur as part of the BlazeSports program. 

"My friends think it's great," she says of her swimming exploits. 

She's taken some time away from her swimming to attend a Centers for Disease Control summer camp on "disease detectives."

If that doesn't exactly sound like Camp Granada, consider that Maya's also thinking about a career as a neonatologist.

She said she wants to work with premature infants, especially those born with serious medical conditions.

"I think she'll make a great doctor," her mother says. 




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