U.S. Paralympics Swimming | Paris Feels Like ‘Yesterday’ And ‘A Lifetime Ago’ As Olivia Chambers Units Her Focus On Singapore World Championships

When Olivia Chambers made her World Para Swimming Championships debut in 2023, her plan was merely to get pleasure from her first massive meet as a member of Team USA and have enjoyable. 

 

Now, with six world championships medals and three Paralympic medals to her title, not a lot has modified. 

 

“The more fun I’m having, the faster I go,” stated Chambers, who’ll compete at her second world championships later this month in Singapore. “So as I become more experienced I’m really just carrying that same mindset of being a newbie and being fresh and everything still being exciting.” 

 

Chambers’ first journey to the world championships was one to recollect. Competing in Manchester, England, she raced in six occasions and medaled in all six, incomes two silver and 4 bronze medals to steer the United States in {hardware}. The breakout efficiency got here simply six months after her first worldwide Para meet, exceptional for somebody who was nonetheless studying to navigate life with a visible impairment that began on the age of 16. 

 

Now 22, she’s a yr faraway from making her Paralympic debut in Paris and incomes her first gold medal on the world stage. 

 

“Honestly, it feels like yesterday, and it also feels like a lifetime ago,” she stated of competing in Paris. “It’s wild because when you’re there everything honestly moves so fast, but it also drags because it’s a 20-session, 10-day meet. That was my longest meet by far.” 

 

Chambers struck gold within the 400-meter freestyle S13. She dominated prelims for the highest seed however knew that Italy’s Carlotta Gilli — who beat her within the occasion on the 2023 world championships — does what she must within the morning and “really throws down at night.” 

 

But Chambers was prepared. 

 

“I knew I’d spent the past year after I lost to (Gilli at the 2023 world championships) working for that and thinking about that and thinking that I wanted to be No. 1 in Paris,” she stated. “But in that moment, sitting in the call room, I was like, ‘Now’s my shot, but if I don’t do it I’m still the same person. I’m still at the Paralympics. It’s still my dream come true to be competing for Team USA.’ 

 

“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t putting too much pressure on myself but also trusting in what I’d done and knowing it was possible that I could win.” 

 

Chambers had an enormous lead on the first flip, and even with the terrific closing velocity Gilli’s identified for the race was by no means unsure. Chambers touched the wall, appeared to her left and didn’t see Gilli; she appeared to her proper and didn’t see the reigning Paralympic champion within the occasion, Ukraine’s Anna Stetsenko, and knew she’d finished it. It was the second gold medal of the Games for the U.S. swimmers. 

 

“It’s something I dreamed of since I started the sport,” stated Chambers, who’s initially from Little Rock, Arkansas. “For it to actually come true is insane. I knew I could do it, but it didn’t hit me until I was standing there. Honestly, I was more nervous for the medal ceremony than the actual race, just with all the cameras on me, but it didn’t really hit me until I was on the podium and the national anthem was going and I had that insanely heavy medal around my neck that I was like, ‘Wow, I just won.’” 

 

Once again residence, the celebrations of not solely her gold but additionally silver within the 100-meter breaststroke SB13 and 200-meter particular person medley SM13 had been short-lived. Between lessons on the University of Northern Iowa and her final collegiate swimming season, life rapidly returned to regular. 

 

Though her faculty swimming profession is now completed, she’s shifted her coaching to the Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, gearing up for this yr’s world championships in Singapore. 

 

She’ll race six occasions there, together with her signature 400 free. 

 

“I obviously set goals, but I can become very obsessive over them so I make them loose goals and know what I’m aiming for, and they just kind of have fun,” Chambers stated. “The biggest thing is just to get there and be excited and have fun because that’s when I swim the fastest. But I’d love to win as many medals as possible and maybe even try again to win the 400 free. I have my Paralympic medal, but I don’t have a world championship title in that, so that would be really cool. We’ll see where everything takes me.” 

 

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has coated Olympic and Paralympic sports activities for numerous publications. She is a contract contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.