Mallory Weggemann has said she became paralyzed after an epidural injection on January 21, 2008, when she was 18. The University of Minnesota Medical School says she lost movement from her abdomen down. The reporting available does not establish why it happened: a 2021 profile says Weggemann and her family never received an explanation for the paralysis.
What Weggemann has said about the 2008 injection
Weggemann went to the hospital for what was intended to be her third and final epidural injection, to treat back pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia, according to the University of Minnesota Medical School’s profile of the swimmer. She was 18. In a 2016 interview with Experience Life, she described the injection as treatment for back pain and said she was paralyzed in January 2008: “My injury was caused by an epidural injection that I was receiving for back pain, and it was supposed to be the third and final one.”
The university profile describes her condition as paraplegia, with complete loss of movement from the abdomen down. These accounts establish the sequence Weggemann has described; they do not identify a medical mechanism. A 2021 U.S. Masters Swimming profile says Weggemann and her family never got answers explaining why the shot caused her paralysis. The accounts cited here do not establish negligence or show that epidural injections generally cause paralysis.
How she returned to swimming
Weggemann had been a competitive swimmer since childhood. After her injury, her sister found a newspaper article about the Paralympic swimming trials at the University of Minnesota, scheduled for April 2008. Weggemann recalled attending and returning to the pool two days later, about two and a half months after the injury; the university profile describes her return as about three months later.
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In the 2016 interview, Weggemann described swimming as a place of freedom and continuity, and said the local swimming community welcomed her. Her athletic career went on to include gold and bronze medals at the 2012 London Paralympics, according to the U.S. Masters Swimming profile.
The 2014 arm injury was a separate event
Weggemann experienced another serious injury in 2014 when a shower bench collapsed beneath her, causing permanent nerve damage in her left arm, NBC Sports reported. That incident happened years after the epidural-related paralysis and was a distinct injury, not part of the 2008 event. In the 2018 NBC Sports report, she described swimming’s role in her recovery: “What’s made it easier now is now I have a black line to go to.”
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Further reading
For Weggemann’s own extended account, U.S. Masters Swimming identifies LIMITLESS as her first book, chronicling her story of resilience and defying limitations. A 2025 Apple Podcasts episode listing also identifies it as her 2021 memoir. Weggemann has described the relationship between disability and identity this way: “It’s part of my identity, but it doesn’t define who I am.”
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