Haven Shepherd, a Paralympic sprinter, is proud to live on her own and fulfill her dream as a professional swimmer and brand ambassador.
Imagine that you have never met your biological parents before. It can’t be easy right?
Now imagine knowing at a young age that these biological parents killed themselves and tried to kill you due to ambiguous societal rules. You survived, but you lost your legs and would only walk with prosthetics.
Now go ahead and do your best to get that early life trauma behind you and become a Paralympic athlete, motivational speaker and role model with a positive spirit that doesn’t need any long rhetoric to discover.
Meets Haven Shepherd An unparalleled American Olympic Paralympic champion.
“I’ve always known my story originated, and it has really helped me through so many things in my life, knowing what happened to me and knowing that I had this amazing story and now I can live it,” Shepherd told FanSided. “I’ve never seen why I’m so insecure about my legs. I can’t change this, I can’t grow my legs again tomorrow, so why don’t I give her a hug?”
This position does not come out of nowhere. Shepherd credits her parents and adoptive family. There is ‘Momager’ Shelly, Dad Rob and her six older siblings who all gave as normal a childhood as possible to Haven, growing up in Carthage, Missouri.
“My first memory is definitely with my big family. I’m the seventh child and I’m the youngest. My first memory is a big family dinner, a packed house. Growing up in a big family was always really exciting to me because you always had something to do.”
Haven’s parents were born in Vietnam, and had an affair. Women in Vietnam were not allowed to divorce their husbands, so the solution was for the family to commit suicide. The parents strapped bombs on themselves and held Haven, who was 16 months old at the time. It was blown 40 feet away and then adopted four months later. About four years later, Haven wanted to know what had happened to her.
“I got out of the bathtub and (my mom Shelley) was drying me and other things and I looked at her and said, are you going to tell me what happened to my legs and why are all my sisters blonde? I was a daring five-year-old kid,” Shepherd said.
The conversation was so unique that only a five-year-old could have had it with his mother.
“She sat me down and told me and I only had two questions, I said ‘Okay, that’s stupid’ and the second question was where do you even get a bomb in Vietnam and my mom’s response was good, I don’t know I ran away and then ran away and played and that was the end of the story,” Shepherd said.
not exactly. Shepherd is now 18 and lives alone, putting off college for the time being while she swims professionally, gives motivational speeches, and models while representing multiple brands to pay the bills. She proudly positions herself in the “young adult” category – “I paid taxes this year, look at me.”
Haven Shepherd is all about the silver lining
The North Star’s target for the next two years is the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Shepherd finished fifth (200 meters individual medley) in her first appearance at the Paralympics in Tokyo 2020.
“A huge part of my life is that I’m in a professional position of my career now, and everyone likes to call me an adaptable athlete, which I am, but they don’t think I’m really doing it,” Shepherd said. “This is my job, I am a professional swimmer, and this is what I do for a living. All professional athletes should be paid for it all under one name but it is important to know the difference between the Paralympics and the Olympics.”
The pool is where Shepherd loves to be. She makes money from the sport, but the sport gives her more than a dollar in her pocket.
“There is nothing in the world like it turns into your body, there is no sound,” Shepherd said. “The reason I sleep well at night is because I get that time where I can process everything that happened that day. I go to the checklist when I got into the pool, what did I do this morning, what did I do today to make tomorrow better? I think it’s very calming To know that I have that reassurance, and that I always have the reassurance of it. No matter how hard my day is, I know I can count on swimming. I can’t imagine my life without water and without swimming.”
We should all have our happy place. And it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have a Haven Shepherd attitude, making sure you care about first place.
“I hate the victim mentality because I have the American mentality to go out and do it yourself,” Shepherd explained. “There is no one who can help you but yourself. I’m not saying just go in there and put on your shorts and show your disability, that’s not what I’m saying I’m saying that in order not to become a victim and I want to stand up for yourself starts with just giving yourself the daily affirmation in the mirror, holding on to yourself from the inside And that’s what I do to myself every day.”
Don’t make it crooked. Shepherd realizes that there is a very essential ingredient that helped her reach for the stars and live the life she lives today.
“I owe everything to my parents, and it is so great to see their dream come into play because they have invested so much in my swimming career, and so great to go to Tokyo and represent them,” Shepherd said. “Since I was very young, (my mom) told me that this is who I am and this is a part of my life that I will have to overcome or may not overcome. She was very reassuring that my legs don’t define me. What defines me is my character my attitude and we have worked on my attitude a lot because that It was a very important thing in my life.”
Positive attitude. Uncompromising determination. The pursuit of the stars. Awareness of persons with disabilities. discipline. Sponsor checks all boxes.
“Life is good, I don’t have much to complain about. My life is beautiful, I don’t live a sad story.”
Its like one of the most amazing things you will ever come across.
Haven Shepherd works in partnership with Smoothie King To promote the latest juice, restore activator.
Why We Play features stories about the power of sport in bringing us together, overcoming obstacles, creating positive change, and reaching everyone. Read more here.
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