Abbas Karimi
From Openwaterpedia
Mohammad Abbas Karimi PLY at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games
Ellie Marks, Mohammad Abbas Karimi PLY, Zach Shattuck and Leanne Smith won the silver medal in the Mixed 4×50m freestyle relay 20 pts event at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games
Mohammad Abbas Karimi PLY (Dari: محمد عباس کریمی; born 1997) is a competitive swimmer.
Swimming Highlights
- He finished 2nd in the S5 50m butterfly event at the 2017 World Para Swimming Championships.
- He came eighth in the 50m butterfly S5 event for the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
- He was part of the USA team that won the medley relay event at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships.
- He has won national championship events in Afghanistan, Turkey and the US.
- He competed for the USa team at the 2024 Paris Paralympics and was part of the USA team that finished 2nd in the Mixed 4×50m freestyle relay 20 pts event.
Personal life
- Karimi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan without both arms.
- At the age of 16, Karimi fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban.
- In 2013, he arrived at a refugee camp in Turkey after traveling through Iran and the Zagros Mountains.
- He lived in four different refugee camps in Turkey.
- In 2016, Karimi moved to Portland, Oregon, USA after being assisted by an American teacher and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees with his documentation for resettlement in the US.
- In 2019, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and became a naturalized American citizen in 2022.
