This article was co-written by Carla Carvallo. Follow the authors on Instagram at @giancarlodiago and @carlacarvalloo.
Every Monday, Anita Mitchell receives an email from her swim team. They discuss routine schedule changes or mundane parking details. New team members aren’t announced.
But this email, in August 2020, was different. It told the team about a new member to the Swim Fort Lauderdale masters team: A disabled Afghan refugee.
Mitchell would write a book about him.
“For me, this is the greatest story and working on it has been amazing,” said Mitchell of her book, “God took my arms but he gave me THIS GIFT,” which is also a quote from her subject. She presented it at the recent Mango Writers Conference in Miami. “Many people doubted him. Because of his disability, some thought he’d never amount to anything.”
Of her recent work, she said, “This was my retirement project. Now this book has taken a life of its own.”
Karimi follows a routine common among his fellow Fort Lauderdale swimmers. He rises early in the morning, brews coffee, then drives to a gym or aquatic center. If to the former, he equips headphones and exercises to music. If the latter, he dons his swimming briefs, cap and goggles, then jumps in the water.
But unlike the other swimmers, he was born armless. For most mundane tasks, from stirring sugar in his coffee to putting on shoes to turning a steering wheel, Karimi uses his feet.
Karimi is a two-time Paralympian swimmer. He has competed internationally in Mexico, Portugal, Germany, Chile, Japan and France. At the Paris 2024 Paralympics, he won two silver medals, one for freestyle relay, another for a medley relay. When he moved to Fort Lauderdale from Portland, Oregon, in 2020, he bonded with his fellow swimmer Mitchell. A former journalist for WSVN 7, she recognized the resonance of his life and sought to spread it.
At the event, writers conference director Ricki Dorn chose the presenting speakers. She evaluated candidates who needed to be local, active authors. Mitchell’s work specifically appealed to her.
When she spoke at her panel, Mitchell remembered the day that her swim team coach announced Karimi’s arrival. She teared up as she recalled the coach’s words about the armless swimmer: “It’s an honor to know him. There are not enough words for what he has done.”
“We only have one life and it doesn’t seem fair that he didn’t have any arms,” said Dorn, who was inspired by Karimi, feeling renewed gratitude for her own arms and legs. “He just got in that pool and swam and learned how and got coached, and just swam anyway without the arms.”
Writing has been constant in Mitchell’s life since she was 13. Mitchell started by passing notes among her classmates between periods.
“I was the communications ringleader,” said Mitchell. “My work was knowing everything that was going on, or at least as much as I could.”
It was during that same year that Mitchell debuted as a published writer; her first article featured the band of the moment. It was 1963, the Beatles were performing at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Mitchell and her two friends straightened their hair with clothing irons because they “heard that the Beatles liked girls with straight hair.” Mitchell recalls the memory with nostalgia, proud that she witnessed the band play their hits live.
“I saw it in print,” Mitchell said of her article, published in her middle-school newspaper, MacDowell elementary. “And I thought that was a big deal.”
As a child, she watched the WXYZ-TV Channel 7 station of Detroit disappear in the distance from her school bus window every morning. “I always looked at it thinking, it would be cool to work in television because that wouldn’t be like working,” she said. “That would be fun.”
Mitchell worked for the WSVN 7 Broward bureau for 26 years. Her favorite part about the job was getting the first glimpse at all current events and stories. She described her experience covering the Broward courthouse as letting her have a front row seat in the story, rather than be a bystander.
Karimi, 28, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. He took to swimming in his youth. As a teenager, he swam competitively, but felt unable to continue as his reputation grew. Unable to envision a life as a world-class swimmer in Afghanistan, he decided to leave. When he was 16 years old, his brother took him as far as Tehran, Iran. From there, Karimi was smuggled west. In a short documentary by Visit Lauderdale, Karimi said, “It was very risky path, but finally I made it to Turkey.”
Karimi competed in Turkey, from refugee camps, for four years. But lacking Turkish citizenship, he could not compete internationally. Karimi eventually reached the United States in 2015. He moved to Portland, Oregon. But when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, he could no longer swim. Local pools closed. With social distancing enforced, he seemed stuck. But then, he learned that the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center remained open. Excited to continue practicing, he moved to Florida.
“I had just started a blog called ‘Broward People,’” said Mitchell. The two bonded over swimming. “After I met him, we became friends, and I wrote the article, the blog piece, about him. That piece eventually turned into a book.”
While arms help propel swimmers, strong abs and legs are vital, too. That is Karimi’s skill, his head weaves as he swims. His vertical undulations resemble aquatic mammals like dolphins, manatees and whales. While they flap their flippers vertically to swim, Karimi kicks.
Carla Albano, a fellow swimmer and friend of Mitchell and Karimi, witnessed his difficult journey, with its highs and lows. Despite that, she said, it was “shared among a large group of adults that…believed in him and supported him.”
Karimi was unavailable for comment because he is visiting his wife and family in Kabul. They remain unable to immigrate and join him. Karimi hasn’t called outside the country, but has sent brief texts. Mitchell said, “We suspect he is being monitored, that the Taliban restricts his communication. Karimi is well-known in Afghanistan, a hero.”
Mitchell recounted her challenges in releasing her book, including working with a literary agent, then meeting her publisher, CG Sports Publishing. Though it demanded time and effort, she is glad she achieved her goal to share Karimi’s story.
“I learned to write a book in retirement,” Mitchell said. “This was the best project I ever had.”
