SANTIAGO, Chile —- On Tuesday in the Men’s 100 Meter Breaststroke SB12, William Rankine and Evan Wilkerson earned a silver and bronze medal, respectively.

Rankine and Wilkerson have been friends since they were 8 years old. Both have been visually impaired since birth, and the two met at a blind surf camp at Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. 

“It’s really awesome just having two Americans on that podium,” Wilkerson said. “That was really special and being able to get medals for our country together since we’ve known each other for so long. That was really awesome.”

After not having seen each other in a long time, the two reconnected in the World Para Swimming Series in Texas in 2021. They knew they had met before, but it was exciting because the two gave each other another American to compete against. As of right now, the two are the only male S12s in the United States so they were only competing internationally. It also gave them someone to hangout with during training and competitions.

Now, both are participating in their first Parapan American Games, a far cry from any other event the two are used to. In Centro Acuatico, fans file in and out throughout the day and most of the seats are filled with the fans from varying countries, showing a strong sense of pride. Brazil, who posted multiple medal winners on the day, had a personal band blasting music to add to the environment. 

For Wilkerson, it adds to the pressure, but he enjoys that even more because it allows him to turn the fear and anxiety into power. The bronze medalist often doesn’t do as well in breaststroke compared to his other events, but today he felt ready.

“I really went absolutely berserk,” Wilkerson said. “I’m usually not a good breaststroker, so I was like — okay it’s time to turn up the heat today, we have to go.”

While they are close friends and similar in a lot of ways, Rankine takes the opposite and tries to drown out the noise. What allowed him to succeed was the fact that he was more relaxed and loose in the water.

Rankine and Wilkerson weren’t the only ones to medal either, as McKenzie Coan earned her second medal of the Parapan American Games. In the Women’s 100 Meter Backstroke, she earned a silver medal with a time of 1:27.55, falling .82 seconds shy of the first place finisher from Colombia, Sara Vargas.

Jonathan O’Neil and Adin Williams both competed for Team USA in the Men’s 100 meter Freestyle event. Despite strong efforts from each, neither finished top three. Connor Gioffreda finished fifth in men’s 400m Freestyle S6. 

Main photo courtesy of Javier Valdes | Santiago 2023

For more photos of this event, visit here.