From Out of Violence

TO BE ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE IN the Paralympic Games, going on through September 5 in Tokyo, an athlete must have at least one of 10 impairments. Some Paralympians were born with these conditions, while others acquired them through disease or accident. Three Team USA Paralympians are members of a third group: those who experienced life-changing violence. Their individual stories and circumstances are different, but each of them has endured nightmares that easily could have destroyed them to become elite athletes competing at the top of their respective sports.

Haven Shepherd, 18

SWIMMER → CARTHAGE, MISSOURI

“I WAS BORN IN VIETNAM TO TWO parents who were married to other people and they had an affair and had me. The story that we’re told is that they thought the only way they could be together was to commit a family suicide and they strapped bombs on themselves in a thatched roof hut and held me. They died,