Roundup: Swimmers Round Out The Year In Style At Nationals

Every other week we scour the web for the latest going on in the world of U.S. Para swimming. Here’s what you missed!

Nationals In Review

What a spectacular year it was for U.S. Para swimmers.

The main event, of course, happened this summer in Paris at the Paralympics, where Team USA snagged an historic haul of 30 medals and showed the world what’s possible. While some of the Paralympians are still taking a break from competition, others joined together with some of the up-and-comers and rising stars of the sport for the U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships on Dec. 13-15 in Orlando.

Two such rising stars who announced themselves as ones to watch over the next quad before Los Angeles in 2024 were Koehn Boyd, who was named Swimmer of the Meet after winning an astounding six national titles, and Katie Kubiak, who wasn’t far behind with five gold medals and a handful of American records.

Lawrence Sapp, Grace Nuhfer, Evan Wilkerson, Morgan Ray, McKenzie Coan, Jamal Hill and Olivia Chambers — who won four gold medals and set a new world record — were among the Paralympians who took their place on the podium one more time before this year was out.

Here are the notable results and roundups from all three days of competition:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

And here’s a roundup on the event from Swimming World Magazine.

Behind The Scenes In Orlando

Nuhfer shared some pics from the event, writing, “nationals!! happy last meet of 2024 (wow what a year).” Check her out in action and behind the scenes here:

Sapp also shared how excited he was to be back racing and looking ahead to 2025 in this post:

And Ray also posted from the event, writing, “It's great to be back in the swing of racing! When you achieve your goals, your goals change. And when your goals change, you become even better. Your old "impossible" time/goal/aspiration becomes a normal thing for you.” 

Read his whole post:

Meet Aaron Thomas

Michigan’s Hope College checked in with Aaron Thomas, an up-and-coming U.S. swimmer, about his trip to nationals.

Thomas shared how he got involved in Para swimming and his goals for nationals and beyond.

“But overall, I would like to have fun, stay loose, and have a great meet,” he said.

Read the full interview here.

‘Let’s Talk Para’ With Lettenberger 

Two-time Paralympian Ahalya Lettenberger is currently studying abroad at Loughborough University in England, and she’s the latest guest on the school’s “Let’s Talk Para” podcast. In the snippet shared on her Instagram, Lettenberger talks about the experience of being in the Paralympic Village. 

“One of the best parts about the Paralympics is living in the Village with all these athletes with all different kinds of disabilities who are the best in their sport, and no one looks twice,” she said. “That’s the epitome of diversity and inclusion. There’s nothing like it. I wish everybody with a disability could experience that.”

Read the post and find a link to the podcast here:

Promoting Diversity In College Swimming

Two-time Paralympian Jamal Hill recently attended the HBCU Celebration Aquatic Festival & Swim Meet at Morehouse College, writing, “Like many African American youth when I was in Highschool I dreamed of attending a historically black college/ university…

“However the greatest challenge for me was that I also wanted to swim competitively in college and there were less than a handful of HBCU’s with collegiate swim programs 😮‍💨

“BUT organizations like @diversityinaquatics are changing that… actually Diversity In Aquatics is changing that! And I’m so excited to be here in Atlanta this weekend for their 3rd Annual HBCU Water Safety Festival and Swim Meet 🏊🏼”

Read the post here:

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.