Former Blue Valley Southwest swimmer wins fourth medal at 2023 Parapan American Games
A former Kansas City-area high school swimmer has earned three individual medals — one gold, one silver, one bronze — at the 2023 Parapan American Games in South America this week.
And then he added a fourth medal, a silver, as a member of Team USA’s Saturday afternoon relays.
Yaseen El-Demerdash, a 2021 graduate of Blue Valley Southwest and the 2021 Kansas City Star Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, captured gold in the men’s 100-meter backstroke at Santiago, Chile, with a final time of 1 minute, 4.36 seconds.
That bested a pair of Argentinians — runner-up Santiago Senestro (1:04.60) and third-place finisher Nicolas Nieto (1:05.79) — as well as the rest of the international field.
“It’s an amazing surprise (to win gold),” El-Demerdash told usparaswimming.org. “I think it hasn’t quite set in, but it feels good.”
Now a member of the USA Paralympic Team and student who is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Kansas, El-Demerdash was born with Poland’s syndrome, a rare disorder in which those afflicted are born without certain bones or muscles.
Earlier in the week, El-Demerdash won silver and bronze medals in two other events.
He took silver in the men’s 100-meter freestyle in 56.39 seconds, behind Brazilian Phelipe Melo’s gold-medal time of 53.18. And he finished third, for bronze, in the men’s 50-meter freestyle, swimming a time of 25.42.
Melo also won this event (23.93), with Canada’s Fernando Lu placing second in 25.28.
El-Demerdash’s fourth medal came in Saturday’s mixed 4x100 free relay event. He teamed with McKenzie Coan (Clarkesville, Georgia), Natalie Sims (Edina, Minnesota) and Jack O’Neil (Colorado Springs, Colorado) to give the U.S. team a runner-up finish in 4 minutes, 18.44 seconds.
“It’s a great way to wrap it up,” El-Demerdash said. “It was an amazing relay and a great summary of our team the last couple of weeks.”
Saturday’s relay medal brought Team USA’s total medals haul to 12 — with El-Demerdash bringing home a quarter of those. He was thrilled about making the U.S. paralympic team, writing on LinkedIn recently, “I am super greatful for the opportunity and all those who helped me make it a reality!”
This story was originally published November 24, 2023 at 1:20 PM.