Anastasia Pagonis: This is my message

Anastasia Pagonis may only be 17 years old, but she's already making waves in and out of the water.

In the Paralympic swimming trials in June, she broke the world record twice in the S11 400m freestyle.

First in the preliminary rounds, and then again in the final to set a time of 4:56.16.

But finding joy in the pool again hasn't been without its challenges for Pagonis.

"The first time I got [back] in the water, I was crying and I told my mom that I never, ever wanted to do this again," she told Olympics.com.

"And then the next day I told her, 'mom, can we go back to the pool and try it again?'

"I sliced my nose, I've broken all my fingers, my hands, my ankles - it was a process to say the least."

Swimming has proven to be an outlet for Pagonis, a place where she feels free, and there have been multiple factors to helping her find love in it again.

Loving life again with the help of her guide dog

When Anastasia Pagonis was nine, she began to notice changes in her vision.

By the time she was 11, her sight began to deteriorate rapidly as a result of autoimmune Retinopathy.

And at 14, Pagonis lost her sight completely.

The now 17-year-old found herself in a dark place, giving up on her dreams as she struggled to get out of bed and see a life beyond being blind.

"I went into a dark depression, I was extremely suicidal.

"I had extreme anxiety, depression, PTSD - it was just a lot to handle," Pagonis told Olympics.com.

But getting her guide dog, Radar, was one of the things that changed Pagonis' mindset and helped give her back the things she felt she was missing.

"He's changed my life," she told NBC News.

"I didn't have any freedom or independence before him, and now that I have him I feel like a totally different person."

Now the duo are inseparable - and Pagonis has not only been able to fall in love with swimming again, but with life too.

Swimming success

After re-discovering her love of swimming, Pagonis mindset switched to competing.

And though the Paralympics were never at the forefront of her mind, they emerged as a real possibility once she began training again.

"I was going for USA swimming things like junior Olympics and Silvers and things like that," she told Sports Illustrated.

"And then we found the Paralympics, and I was like 'wow I'm pretty close to these times, maybe I could make a career out of this."

Pagonis went onto make her World Para Swimming debut at the 2020 World Series in Australia, succeeding her own expectations by winning gold in the S11 400m freestyle.

And she continued to improve in the pool, demonstrating her progress more recently in the Paralympic trials breaking the world record twice.

The 17-year-old will be hoping she can channel that form as she bids for gold in Tokyo.

Using social media to help change the perception of blind people

When she's not training or competing, Pagonis is using her social media platforms to help change the way others view blind people.

From behind the scenes of her training to humorous skits that give an insight to life as a blind girl, Pagonis has become a role model for other young people.

"The message that I love the most is people saying: 'You really changed my life when I was getting bullied', or people that are visually impaired saying that I really helped them," she revealed to Olympics.com.

"Or just girls that are getting bullied in high school because I deal with a lot of bullying and just helping them and making sure that they feel like they're not alone because that's super important."

Through the use of TikTok and Instagram in particular, the teenager has reached millions and wants to help educate them in her own way.

"The question that annoys me the most is the 'you don't look blind,'" said Pagonis.

"What does blind look like? That's what I always say.

"I'm sorry you have this stereotype of blindness and that I can't reduce it and then I can't do my makeup and then I can't do my hair and that I can't be a professional athlete.

"I'm sorry that you think that, but I just want to show them that, yeah, I can."

Pagonis has been making a splash outside of the pool with her social presence - but now she's firmly focused on what she does in the pool as she lives out one of her 'biggest dreams' when she competes at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.