Tokyo, Japan - Team USA picked up its first gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Summer Games thanks to two of their youngest, but brightest stars in Thursday’s swimming finals.

17-year-old Anastasia Pagonis won the first gold for the United States as she came in first in the women’s 400-meter freestyle S11, a swimming event for competitors who are visually impaired.

This was also Pagonis’ first-ever major international meet of her career.

She touched the wall first with a winning time of 4:54.49, a new Paralympic record.

Liesette Bruinsma of the Netherlands, the 2016 champion, finished at 5:05.34 for the silver medal and Cai Liwen of China got the bronze at 5:07.56.

Pagonis also broke the original event record earlier in the day during her initial 400m freestyle heat. She also broke her own world record in the event, set during the US Paralympic Trials held this past June.

As with many youngsters in her generation, she’s an avid user of Tiktok and Instagram, using her social media footprint to educate others about adaptive sports and the visually impaired community.

She currently has a total of over two million followers through both of her accounts.

Another 17-year-old American swimmer, Gia Pergolini, earned the second gold medal for Team USA by winning the women’s 100m backstroke S13 final on Thursday.

She won in world record time at 1:04:64, while Italy’s Carlotta Gilli got the silver with 1:06:10, and Australia’s Katja Dedekind rounded out the medal podium with a time of 1:06:49 for the bronze.

The S13 meets are also run under the same classification for swimmers with visual impairments.

This was also the first Paralympic Games for Pergolini, and just like with Pagonis, she had broken the original record in her first respective heat – and was even better come finals time.

Pagonis will also compete in the 50m freestyle, the 200m IM, and the 100m freestyle, while Pergolini has her own 50m freestyle approaching later this week.