Once considered a latecomer to the sport of Para swimming, Zach Shattuck is now a veteran member of the U.S. national team.

He’ll be seeking his second trip to the Paralympic Games this summer in Paris, and while he’s hoping for his own individual success, Shattuck’s heart has always been with the team aspect of the sport. The importance of the team is something he’s now trying to instill in the next generation of Para swimmers through his leadership.

“I was never positive I’d ever win a medal representing Team USA, but when I joined the team I knew I wanted to leave it in a better spot and help this next generation that’s going to continue the positive rise of the sport,” Shattuck said. “When you have a team that’s on the same page your performance is going to be better, for the individual and the team.”

Shattuck, 27, didn’t start swimming until he got to college at Frostburg State in his native Maryland. Born with dwarfism, he was always athletic but competed in team sports until he found swimming.

He excelled quickly in the pool, and as a relative newcomer in 2016 he was named an alternate to the team that competed at the Rio Paralympics. He made his Paralympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, finishing as high as eighth in the 200-meter individual medley SM6.

Things have changed since then. Leading up to Tokyo, Shattuck had just finished his second year of coaching at the University of Mary Washington under Justin Anderson, his former coach at Frostburg who was also on the coaching staff in Tokyo. Shattuck was also serving as a caregiver for his grandmother, who has since passed.

Now, he’s a volunteer coach with the St. Mary’s College of Maryland and also coaches a club team that swims there. He’s also evolved his training, working with St. Mary’s swim coach Casey Brandt and a former college teammate, Christian March.

“The three of us come up with creative ways to do a less-is-more approach,” Shattuck said. “I’m doing a lot more power and speed and not so much hammering heavy yardage because my body just can’t take that anymore at 27. So we’re coming up with strategies to be effective and faster in the water without the physical demands that swimming takes on you.”

He’s also still playing team sports, namely soccer. Shattuck recently put together a team that traveled to a tournament in Argentina. While there they met with the U.S. ambassador to Argentina to raise awareness for dwarf sports and the need for more support and opportunities.

“Most of the Para sports that dwarfs can compete in have been roughly the same since I started in 2014,” he said. “There are still no winter sports for dwarf athletes. I think getting more involved in legislature and athlete advisory groups to try to get the word out is so important because there are a lot of dwarf athletes who are very talented. But a lot of young athletes stop playing sports as they get older because they can’t compete with their average-sized peers physically and they don’t know about this potential and other opportunities to continue playing.”

Shattuck served as a U.S. swim team captain at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Chile this past fall, flying straight there from the tournament in Argentina. He medaled in both his events, winning silver in the 100-meter breaststroke and bronze in the 50-meter butterfly, but just as enjoyable was being at a meet he said is one of his favorites because it often features up-and-coming athletes.

“You take on this sense of responsibility to show the younger athletes what I’ve learned in the past from the older athletes about representing Team USA and what sort of standard we’re trying to uphold and how we represent ourselves in and out of the pool,” he said. “But my perspective I always try to share is to have fun and enjoy it. Don’t make everything a life-or-death battle. You’ll have more fun and you’ll remember the experience a lot more positively.”

Leading up to the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials at the end of June, Shattuck will be focusing on preparing as best he can for a return trip to the Games. While going to Tokyo was an honor, he said, he’d love nothing more than to experience a Games without COVID-19 protocols in place so that fans and — more importantly — his family can be there watching.

“If I looked up and saw both my parents and my sister, my dad’s dad, who’s my last surviving grandparent, my girlfriend, maybe some other family members, the people who’ve been with me through it all, of for the majority, (would be amazing),” he said. “To be able to share something like swimming in a Games and have them there with you has got to be one of the coolest things you can ever say you did.”

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.

On His Road To Paris, Zach Shattuck Is All About The Team

Loading...