From Cancer to Paralympian: Antwahn Boyce represents Barbados in Paris

Barbados: As the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Paralympics kicked off on August 28 in the French capital, Barbados para swimmer Antwahn Boyce-Vaughan carried the Barbados flag.

This is the 2nd time that the athlete is participating in Paralympics. In 2021, he finished 2nd in Heat 1 of the S9 Men's 50m freestyle with a time of 37.86 seconds. He was the lone competitor for Barbados in 2021 and again this year.

According to the information, the Barbados Olympic Association in January 2022 awarded him with BOA's 'Spirit of Resilience' Individual Award.

Antwahn journey began in Paralympic Swimming right after he lost his right leg to cancer back in 2018, just a week before his 18th birthday. This was due to a bone cancer, Osteosarcoma, which he battled for around 18 months.

He had never swum before, and then, in January 2020, he started to learn to swim. He was challenged when the COVID-19 pandemic stepped in, and the pool and beaches were closed, putting his swimming lessons on hold for most of the year 2020.

By the end of February 2020, Antwahn began to train via online Zoom exercises, and that was combined with swimming practice for the entire month of March, four to five days a week, two hours every day at Browne's Beach.

He participated in his first competition in mid-April when he competed in the World Para Swimming Championships 2021 where 116 athletes representing 20 nations competed over three days at the LISD Westside Aquatic Centre in Lewisville in Texas, USA.

Antwahn needed to get to the games in Texas to compete and undergo his swimming classification in order to participate in the Paralympics, and he was successful in doing so. 

He competed in the 50 metres freestyle and in the breast stroke and made it to the finals where he improved on his times. His performance earned him a wildcard to attend the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.