Fairfield grad Young wins second silver medal

Colleen Young, a 2020 Fairfield graduate, won the silver medal in the 200-meter SM13 Individual Medley with a time of 2:26.80 seconds on Monday, earning her second career Paralympic medal. She previously won the bronze in 2016 in the 100 backstroke.

“I feel so ecstatic,” Young told US Swimming following the final. “I really worked on the individual medley over the past year, and I am really happy it paid off.”

Despite reaching the first 50meter mark in fourth place during Monday’s final in Tokyo, Young quickly found momentum and placed herself third at the halfway point (in 1:10.31) to begin the breaststroke leg, her strongest of the four swims, in position to medal.

Young, in lane five, then passed Uzbekistan’s Shokhsanamkhon Toshpulatova just a few meters before the 150-meter turn to get into second place, which she kept through the final 50 meters to finish five seconds behind gold medalist Carlotta Gilli from Italy. Gilli set a world record with her first-place time of 2:21.44.

Prior to Tokyo, the 23-year-old swam with the Stags from 20162020 and holds eight school records, along with being a seventime MAAC Champion. At age 14, Young became the youngest U.S. athlete to compete in the Paralympics during the 2012 London Games.

The St. Louis, Mo. native advanced to the 200m SM13 Individual Medley final by placing second overall across the two prelim heats of the event with a time of 2:29.61 on Aug. 29

Swimming in lane five of heat two, Young started the race in third place at both the 50 and 100meter marks. However, Young found a surge of momentum during the breaststroke leg of the race and passed Ireland’s Roisin Ni Riain to get into second place,

Lintao Zhang / Getty Images Silver medalist Colleen Young of the United States poses after the women’s 200-meter Individual Medley-SM13 at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.