Para-swimmer Elena Semechin speaks in the BR24Sport podcast “Pizza & Fries” about her visual impairment and the fear of losing her remaining vision.
Double Paralympics winner Elena Semechin spoke unusually openly about setbacks, fear and her way back to top sport in the BR24Sport podcast “Pizza & Fries”. In a conversation with Felix Neureuther and Philipp Nagel, the para-swimmer talks about her visual impairment, her brain tumor and why sport has changed her life.
“Sport has completely changed my life. Sport has been the gateway into the world for me,” explains Semechin in the new episode of the podcast. The swimmer lives with genetic macular dystrophy and says she only has two percent vision left.
The rare eye disease became noticeable in childhood. “I’m incredibly grateful for these two percent, because at least I can still see a little something,” says the 32-year-old, who lived in Bamberg for a long time.
Sport as a way out of exclusion and hopelessness
In the podcast, Semechin also describes her difficult childhood and the feeling of being excluded. For a long time she felt like she didn’t belong. It was only sport that gave her self-confidence.
“If you’re always excluded and always told: ‘You’re different’, then at some point you’ll have a hunger to say: ‘I can do something in life,'” she says.
She didn’t learn to swim until she was 13 years old. Nevertheless, she later developed into one of the most successful para-swimmers in the world. The successes helped her come out of her shell, says Semechin.
Brain tumor diagnosis after the Paralympics in Tokyo
The conversation becomes particularly emotional when it comes to the time after the Paralympics in Tokyo 2021. Shortly after her gold medal win, Semechin was diagnosed with brain cancer. Instead of asking herself “Why me?”, she tried to quickly find a goal again. “I need a goal that drives me again,” she says in the podcast.
Her big goal was to return to the sporting stage after the operation and treatment and to defend her title in the 100 meter breaststroke at the Paralympics in Paris – with success.
Fear of complete loss of vision
Semechin also speaks openly about her fears. Particularly during her pregnancy, she was worried about completely losing her remaining vision. “What if this happens now and I don’t see my baby anymore?” she asked herself at the time.
Today she tries not to let such thoughts permanently determine her. “It happens as it happens. I can’t influence it,” says Semechin.
Source: Pizza & Fries – with Felix Neureuther and Philipp Nagel May 6, 2026 – 10:00 a.m
