Nationals Offers A ‘Stress-Free’ Meet After A Pressure-Packed 2024 For Morgan Ray

It’s been a long time since Morgan Ray went to a swim meet thinking more about having fun than results.

At this time last year, the U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships marked the beginning of a long sprint to the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Ray went into the meet eager to see how a new training regimen and coaching would impact his times, before turning his attention to other tests on the journey toward the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials and, ultimately, Paris.

Now that he’s not only a Paralympian but also a Paralympic silver medalist, his goals are a bit different for this year’s national championships, taking place Dec. 13-15 in Orlando.

“Have a lot of fun,” said Ray, from St. Augustine, Florida. “This is going to be a stress-free kind of meet. If good times happen that’s great, but mentally I just want to have fun and not have to think about making a team or anything like that. I haven’t had a meet like that in a while.”

Ray, 22, has earned it. His career is a testament to the power of perseverance and a steadfast faith, particularly since the heartbreak of being named an alternate on the Tokyo Paralympic team and missing the chance to compete by the narrowest of margins.

“The last three years, not hearing my name called had played back in my head every day,” he said. “At 4 a.m. when I was hopping in the pool, late evenings, every day just recycling through me.”

That near miss lit a spark, however, and the following year Ray made his first world championships team. He’d worked hard to earn that moment, taking the sting of the alternate tag and using it as motivation. But just after arriving, he tested positive for COVID-19 and had to quarantine in his hotel room. He had been slated to race the next day on the mixed 4x50-meter medley 20-point relay team; instead he was in his room while that team won gold.

Despite it all, he was able to compete before the meet was over and won the silver medal in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke SB6.

Ray earned a spot on the world championship team again in 2023; this time he experienced a different type of disappointment when he finished fourth in the men’s 100 breaststroke SB6, just off the podium. 

Finally, this summer at the Paralympic trials, Ray finally got the moment for which he’d waited so long when he heard his name called not as an alternate but as a U.S. Paralympic Team member. 

“It felt like time kind of stopped a little bit, and then a couple of my teammates turned around and looked at me and I just started tearing up,” he said. “A lot of them have seen my journey firsthand.”

In Paris, Ray set a new American record and became the first U.S. SB6 swimmer to finish the men’s 100-meter breaststroke in under 1 minute, 22 seconds. Still, he got fourth place and had to accept another near podium miss. 

His medal moment was coming, though. Ray won the silver swimming the breaststroke leg of the mixed 4x50-meter medley 20 points along with Abbas Karimi, Leanne Smith and Elizabeth Marks. 

“I think it all sums up my journey through the sport,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of near misses, but I think the culmination of all those things ended up being for that relay, and that relay was extra special. … I’m usually pretty jittery, but for some reason I was so calm (before that race). Everything just really came together, the whole preparation and just sitting in and staying in the process.”

Since coming home, Ray was among the region’s Olympians and Paralympians to be honored on the field at a Jacksonville Jaguars game. He joined members of Team USA at the White House, and also had his name entered on the wall reserved for Olympic (and now Paralympic) swimmers — including Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Murphy — who’ve come from the prestigious Bolles School in Jacksonville.

The school has produced 67 Olympic swimmers, and Ray is the first Paralympic swimmer.

“From the moment I came to Bolles I wanted to leave a legacy, or start one, really,” he said. “They’ve never had a Paralympian. Putting my name on the wall meant so much, to be included in the conversation with those other athletes is something we always talk about when we talk about equity with our Olympic counterparts.”

As a senior at the University of North Florida, he’s now excited about an upcoming internship with Brooks Rehabilitation working with children and adults with disabilities and getting them involved in sports. 

And, of course, training for the next world championships and, eventually, the Los Angeles Paralympics.

But first, the experience of coming into the national championships for the first time as a Paralympic medalist.

“It holds a lot of value for me ,” he said. “It’s just another step to come back with a medal, and I think confidence-wise I know I can make an impact with younger athletes and help them to realize their journey is going to be different from everyone else’s, and to embrace it.”

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