Matthew Torres couldn’t even swim when he was seven years old. But he watched with awe as Michael Phelps swept up eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympics.
Matthew told his parents that he would someday do the same thing.
Due to amniotic band syndrome, in which the fibrous bands of the amniotic sac get tangled around a developing fetus, Matthew was born without the lower half of his right leg and several fingers on each hand. He also has moderate hearing loss.
That didn’t stop him on his quest to be like Phelps. This week, Torres, 23, will be competing in Paris in the Paralympics – international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. He’ll be swimming in the same pool at Paris La Defense Arena where the Olympic swimming events took place earlier this month.
“I’m in a really good spot going into the games. I feel like I’ve got a good amount of momentum the way the past few weeks have been going, so I’m just looking to continue moving forward,” Torres told Aleteia as he was about to leave for Paris.
He expects to be competing in the 400-meter freestyle, the 100-meter backstroke, and the 100-meter freestyle.
Although he competed in the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, he feels that in a certain way Paris will be his first time in the world competition.
“I honestly believe it’s going to be a whole new experience, with Tokyo having been the pandemic games,” he said. “There were so many restrictions and guidelines in place with the pandemic. It’ll be kind of hard to compare with Tokyo.”
In fact, not even his parents, Martha and Gilbert Torres, were able to go to Tokyo and had to watch on TV as their son received his bronze.
“I’m just going in with an open mind and seeing it as my first time, in a way. I’ll just be trying to embrace the experience as much as I can, because I know it’s just going to be a completely different atmosphere,” Matthew said.
A life-long resident of Ansonia, Connecticut, Torres graduated from Fairfield University in the Spring of 2023, majoring in finance. Although he is a member of the Knights of Columbus council at Holy Rosary Church in Ansonia, where he and his family attend Mass, he said he doesn’t have time for much of anything these days outside of his job in real estate and swim practice. He’s been training about 18 hours a week.
After the Paralympics, which run from August 28 to September 8, he’ll be competing in the Open Water Cup on September 21 in Sardinia, Italy.
