From the LA Times: 

His life, 16-year-old Mateo Escovar said, can be one of suffering. And yet he smiles.

Every step is danger. Every step brings risk that his muscles will cave, his legs will crumple, and calculations constantly nag in the back of his mind to prepare for a fall. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy shortly after he was born; growing up has brought a never-ending string of therapies and surgeries, trying to correct a gait where his knees once rotated so far inward that his mother, Christina, described his legs looking like an X.

Yet he smiled Tuesday, bright and toothy, because he got to swim.

For years, the water has been Escovar’s element. Competitive swimming brought confidence, bolstered by joining his high school team this year at St. Monica Academy in Montrose, earning cheers and chants since his first meet of the season. In the pool, movement is no longer a risk. He can propel his body freely, on his terms, fear of falling replaced by sheer determination to reach the wall.

“It’s the only way I can not feel like I need to make a backup plan every time,” Escovar said of movement.

Escovar has cut his times by about 20 seconds since the year began. He was still seven seconds away from meeting the qualifying mark to compete in the adaptive heat of the state championships. So last week, Christina brought a question via email to Southern Section assistant commissioner Kristine Palle: was there any qualifying time that would enable her son to compete as a para-athlete at the section finals in early May?

The Southern Section didn’t have any such heats for swimming championships. But within days, Palle pieced together a new race that would take place across all divisions: a 50-meter freestyle “para-heat,” or what Commissioner Rob Wigod has informally dubbed the “inclusive” heat.

“When I told [Mateo] in the car on the way to swim practice, he had the biggest smile on his face I’ve ever seen,” Christina said. “And as a mom, who’s seen him struggle, the emotional highs and lows of having a disability, that was priceless.”

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