After Paris Pinnacle, Yaseen El-Demerdash Stepped Back from Swimming to Take Two Steps Forward

For many swimmers, the opportunity to compete in a world championship event is considered a pinnacle of their career, Yaseen El-Demerdash included. 

He was less than two years removed from making his Paralympic debut in Paris when his name was called for the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore. It was a milestone he’d worked hard to achieve. 

So it came as a surprise to some when he announced that he was declining the offer to compete. 

“I’d been going to school full time and training full time, and then in the summers I was taking online classes and doing an internship, and, you know, you have all these things on your plate and you want to give everything 100 percent,” El-Demerdash said. “At some point, you realize you can’t do that.” 

He’d dreamed of competing in Singapore, where he had been scheduled to race in his first international competition before it was canceled during COVID-19, but the world championships were in September. He would just be starting his final semester of college at Kansas and working on securing a full-time job. 

El-Demerdash had a lot of conversations with coaches, his family and his close friends. After having worked so hard to reach his goal of competing at the Paralympics, he decided, it was time to prioritize other things. 

“I realized I had sacrificed in every other aspect of my life to make Paris, so I could continue that sacrifice or I could make up for it by giving my attention to these other aspects of my life,” he said. 

As soon as he made the decision, he knew it was the right choice. 

“And looking back on it, I have no regrets,” he said. “I think I’ve set myself up in a lot better and more sustainable position for the long term.” 

El-Demerdash, who was born with Poland Syndrome and is missing muscles and bones on the right side of his body, is now freshly out of college and working full time as a telecommunications engineer in the Kansas City area, where he grew up. He’s loving the work and the consistent schedule, training in the mornings and enjoying the easier pace of swimming these days. 

He admits the sport had lost its joy for him in the years leading up to Paris, so much so that he was convinced he’d retire after the 2024 Games. He’d been swimming intensely every year since high school, and the passion had waned. 

“But at the (U.S. Paralympic Team) Trials it all came together, and I was having fun racing,” he said. “It was the most fun I’d had swimming in my entire life. I knew there was no way I could go through this experience and retire without experiencing a home games.” 

El-Demerdash doesn’t have a specific plan for these next two years leading up to the United States hosting the Paralympics in Los Angeles in 2028. Or at least if he sketches one out, he’s open to it changing. 

“And that’s usually for the best,” he said. “My goal for the next two years is to find the joy that I had competing and training just prior to Paris and seeing if I can just maintain that. Because if I’m not enjoying swimming, why am I doing it?” 

Right now, El-Demerdash is preparing for the Para Swimming World Series meet in May in Paris. It will be his first time competing since being there for the Paralympics, and he’s been focusing recently on building up his foundation. 

“Then it will be focusing on perfecting the technique and conditioning and really honing in on the sprint focus,” said El-Demerdash, who competed in five races in Paris, with his best individual finish being ninth in the 100-meter backstroke and 50-meter freestyle S10 races. “I’m leaning into the fact that I’m a sprinter now. I am claiming it, and I am announcing it. That’s my thing. I’m a sprinter. Here we are.” 

Competing in the Paralympics also sparked another goal for El-Demerdash. 

While soaking up the joy throughout the competition and the Closing Ceremony in Paris, he was filled with appreciation for his family and all those who helped him get there. In the days and weeks that followed, he was also filled with an understanding that not everyone has the resources to devote years to making their athletic dreams come true. El-Demerdash had a desire to help, and he spoke with others who felt the same. 

“I had all these connections and these resources and now I had a platform,” he said. “So how do we leverage this to make the greatest impact and give more people the opportunity to do what we’ve done?” 

El-Demerdash has partnered with several other current and retired Olympians & Paralympians, including teammate Jack O’Neil, to start a nonprofit called Ripple Effect Incorporated. While it’s not completely up and running yet, the goal is to provide athletes the opportunity to give back and make their sports more equitable and accessible in the long-term, El-Demerdash said, and to give more people the opportunities they had. 

“We want to be able to share this opportunity, not even just competing at the Olympics and Paralympics but all the opportunities that sports can give you,” he said. “ The doors that it can open, and the personal development that it creates within someone. So being able to make sports more affordable and accessible is something that we’re all super passionate about, and so we’re excited to be able to get that ball rolling soon.” 

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.