David Abrahams Readies For Big Final Year Of Swimming Before Moving On To Math

Every athletic career has an end date, although not every athlete gets to choose when that is.

If all goes according to plan, however, David Abrahams knows that his career will be finished in September. In the spring, he’ll race in his final meet as a member of Harvard’s swim team. Then, he hopes, this summer’s Paralympics will be not only his second time competing on the world’s biggest stage, but also his last major international competition. After Paris, the math major will start work full-time at the job he already has lined up as a quantitative researcher with an investment management company.

“I’m really in a good head space about where I’m at and what I want to do with the time I have left,” said the native of Havertown, Pennsylvania. “I’m just excited to be out there and compete before it’s over.”

Swimming has been part of Abrahams’ identity for most of his life. Now 22, he started the sport as a child, and after he began to lose his vision from Stargardt disease at 13 years old, he adapted and continued to swim, both against able-bodied competition and as a part of the U.S. Para team. His involvement in the sport and with the Para program, he said, helped him when he was insecure about his disease to grow comfortable with himself.

But not long after he made his Paralympic debut in Tokyo in 2021 at 20 years old, Abrahams tore the labrum in his hip. Surgery wasn’t recommended, so he healed through rest and physical therapy. It was a long process, he said, and in the leadup to last summer’s world championships his training was going well and he was feeling good but he wasn’t getting the times he was used to before the injury.

There were moments, he said, when he thought perhaps his Para swimming career was already over. He knew that world championships were going to be a test to see how competitive he still would be against top-level competition.

Abrahams took bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke SB13.

“Luckily my coaches and I found the right balance of training while not pushing the hip too much, but making sure I had a strong cardio base and aerobic base to get the job done,” said Abrahams, who won a silver medal in the same event in Tokyo. “There was a lot of self-imposed pressure because I missed being as competitive as I was before all this stuff happened. I was really happy with the results and made a lot of really great memories.”

The world championships were memorable for another reason as well. Abrahams’ teammates voted him U.S. co-captain, alongside Hannah Aspden.

“That was definitely, definitely not something I was expecting,” he said. “I was just beyond honored. It was really such a good feeling to know people saw me in that light and to be able to help the team in any way I could.”

Abrahams is now preparing for his senior season at Harvard. Being at college, he said, taught him how to be more independent. Living with a disability and its impacts on daily life, especially in the realm of academics, was a big adjustment. Being on the team taught him about performing for something greater than himself.

The things he’s been most proud of in his college swimming career, he said, haven’t been achievements accomplished on his own. He wasn’t even in the water for his most memorable moment so far. Every year, Ivy League foes Harvard, Princeton and Yale compete against one another in a tri-meet. Last year’s meet came down to the last relay.

“One of my roommates out-touched Princeton to get the win and it was so much fun to see,” Abrahams said. “It was something we’d been thinking about all year, and to see it come to fruition in one moment was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been part of.”

Abrahams is looking forward to being a veteran leader this season and imparting all he can to younger members of the team. And although academics are still his top priority, Abrahams said he’s training harder now than he ever has before in his life so that he’s in the best position possible to not only make the 2024 Paralympic team but also compete for medals. 

“Having a final, terminal date now, there’s only so many days to train and push to the next level so I’m just buckling down and putting everything I have into it,” he said. “There was a point last year where I thought I might have to give it up because of my hip.

“I think maybe I didn’t realize how much I loved swimming and competing until I was faced with losing it. I feel blessed to have the ability to do it a few more times and go out on my own terms.”

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.