With the scent of chlorine heavy in the air, Bowen Toomey takes a leap off the starting block and into the pool. The 17-year-old orients himself and begins gliding swiftly between the floating, two-tone lane barriers. When he comes up for air, he hears his team, family, and friends cheering him on, rallying him forward.
Before the meet, Toomey listened to his hype playlist to get excited. Now, he’s focused on beating the target time he picked out beforehand.
The water parts beneath his partial left arm and slips past him as he flexes his torso – movements he’s honed since he was a kid to accommodate the right arm and legs he wasn’t born with.
A last push.
A new time on the scoreboard.
And another personal best for the S2 para-class swimmer, who has swum his way into the record books.
One Stroke at a Time
“When I was younger, my mom taught me to float on my back and I just took off from there,” Toomey said. “I personally developed my way of swimming. I’m unique. I just figured out my own way.”
Toomey’s strokes must account for his different buoyancy.
“For instance, my hips like to sink and stop me in my tracks,” he said. “I try to work through it. I don’t ever stop swimming. I just keep trying.”
That persistence is something that stood out to Coach Linda Conger, the head site coach at the South Meridian YMCA of the Boise YMCA swim team. Toomey’s brother Heath, now 19, used to swim for the team, while brother Brooks, 17, started a few years ago. Conger encouraged all the siblings to join the team. Initially, Toomey was satisfied with doing his own thing.
“A little over a year ago, I saw (Bowen) at the South Y and I said, ‘When are you going to come swimming with me?’ And he finally said, ‘Well, I want to start now.’ So that's kind of how we got him going.”
And being part of the team has created new opportunities for Toomey.
“(I enjoy) swimming competitively with other swimmers and standing out,” he said.
Record-setting Trendsetter
Conger said for S2 para swimming events, the longest race is a 200 freestyle. But Toomey was ready for more. Since joining the Boise YMCA team in January 2025, he’s swum longer and longer distances, quickly marking out the 1650 as his favorite.
“We did the 1650 a couple times in practice,” Conger said. “And he just kind of gets in a rhythm and it's like the Energizer Bunny: he just keeps going and going. While we were doing that, I went and got a little curious. So I looked up to see what the American records for the S2s were. And it's like, ‘Wait a minute, he just would have broken the 200-yard freestyle by a minute.’ And there were no American records in the 500, the 1000 yards, and the 1650 yards. It's like, ‘Hey, we can swim a meet where he swims the mile, and we can set four American records in one race.’”
Which is exactly what Toomey did at the November 2025 SR Boise YMCA Swim Team Intrasquad meet.
“I felt like a trendsetter because I am the only one in my S2 para classification to race that race,” he said. “I felt victorious. I felt on fire. I felt joyful.”
From the Start
Understanding Toomey’s triumphs necessitates revisiting his starting point in an orphanage crib in Belgrade, Serbia.
Devon and Jeremy Toomey were interested in adoption. Devon Toomey had a background as a special education teacher, so a special needs child seemed an obvious fit. But how it would all come together was a mystery.
“But then one day, shortly after giving birth to our second son Brooks, I saw Bowen in a photo and the instant I saw him, I knew he was meant to be our son,” she said.
The entire family traveled to Serbia to pick Bowen Toomey up in June 2010.
“It was amazing seeing Bowen for the first time,” Devon Toomey said. “We were so grateful to finally be in Serbia, knowing we were there to bring our son home.”
Find a Way
The newest member of the Toomey family faced different trials than most.
“When Bowen came home, at 18 months old, he didn’t know how to sit up, chew food, talk, etc.,” Devon Toomey said. “So those first few months were definitely challenging. But at the same time, it was a really big time of growth for him on so many levels, and that was really exciting to see. He handled everything so well and quickly gained all those skills and more.”
Jeremy Toomey told all his sons: “Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.” And whether it was time trials or learning how to get around, Bowen Toomey started succeeding again and again.
“We’ve always raised him to be independent and to dream big,” Devon Toomey said. “We don’t put limitations on him and have taught him from the beginning to not put limitations on himself. We always said, ‘You can do everything that other people are doing. You may just have to find a different way to do it, unique to yourself.’ And he has! That has been amazing to see.”
Swimming was an early priority, as the Toomeys wanted all their children to be safe around water.
“(Bowen) naturally took to the water and quickly started swimming independently, discovering his own individual technique,” Devon Toomey said. “We love the sport of swimming so it has been extremely nice that all three of our boys took to it and have really enjoyed being a part of the swim community.”
Day-to-Day
When not in the pool, you can find Bowen Toomey spending time with his family.
“(I like) watching movies, traveling, and enjoying a meal together.”
The entire family still honors his Serbian roots, with traditions like Serbian Christmas, where they prepare dishes from his homeland.
“We have always made sure Bowen knew about his birth country,” Devon Toomey said. “It’s important for us to celebrate his culture and have that be a part of his life. It’s part of who he is and that is something to cherish.”
School days at Northstar Charter High School are packed and include his favorite subjects (art and philosophy), but Bowen Toomey still finds time for even more hobbies.
“Dance, snowboarding, surfing, baseball, jumping on the trampoline, listening to music, watching movies and tv shows, reading, doing research with my computer on lots of things,” he said.
And there’s nothing like some good-natured sibling rivalry.
“We have good sportsmanship toward each other,” Bowen Toomey said of his brother Brooks. “I like swimming with him.”
Bowen Toomey said he sometimes struggles with articulating his thoughts, but continues to do his best at achieving his goals.
“Fellow athletes say that they are inspired by me and ‘Good job!’”
New Goals
Bowen Toomey has big plans for his future.
“As an adult: Working in aviation, hopefully as a pilot,” he said. “I would also like to try acting.”
But he won’t be abandoning the water.
“I will keep with competitive sports,” he said. “I’m not going to quit. I would like to keep working with Coach Conger and make it to the (Paralympics) for swimming. Maybe even LA 2028!”
Until then, he’ll keep following the advice he loves to give: “Keep doing your best.”