Ahalya Lettenberger Went From Paralympian In Paris To Marshall Scholar In England

The memory of walking out of the call room for her first race of the Paralympic Games in Paris this summer, hearing the packed house at La Défense Arena cheering and seeing her parents in the stands still gives Ahalya Lettenberger chills.

But even though the Closing Ceremony was less than three months ago, it feels like so much longer. That’s because five days after Lettenberger got home from Paris, she was off again, moving to England for the first of a two-year graduate school opportunity as a Marshall Scholar.

“It’s crazy because it hasn’t been that long, but also so much has happened between then and now that, oh my gosh, Paris feels like a lifetime ago,” the 23-year-old from Glen Ellyn, Illinois, said.

Lettenberger has always been driven to succeed both in and out of the pool. She made her Paralympic debut in Tokyo while working on her undergraduate degree and competing as a member of the Owls swim team at Rice University in Houston. She graduated summa cum laude, and just over a year ago was named a 2024 Marshall Scholar.

The elite program — no more than 40 students are selected from across the country each year — is giving her the opportunity to pursue a Master of Science degree in sport biomechanics at Loughborough University this year, then go to University College London next year to pursue a second master’s in disability, design and innovation.

But before the move across the pond, there was the matter of Lettenberger’s second Paralympic Games. In some respects, it almost felt like her first Paralympic Games given that Tokyo was held without spectators due to COVID-19.

“It was a completely different experience,” she said. “When I went to Tokyo, I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Obviously it was weird without spectators, but it didn’t feel as crazy to me because I’d never been to a Games. But then when I went to Paris it was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is what it’s supposed to be like.’ It was incredible. Having that arena sold out every session, the atmosphere was incomparable.”

Lettenberger, who was born with a muscular skeletal disorder called arthrogryposis amyoplasia that causes joint restrictions and muscle weakness, also got to experience the full pageantry of the Opening Ceremony with spectators in attendance. And being able to socialize and interact more in the athlete’s village and around the Games was also a welcome change from Tokyo.

“We were able to go watch blind soccer, and that was cool to go and explore and see some other sports,” she said.

Lettenberger won the silver medal in the 200-meter SM7 individual medley in Tokyo, so if there was one disappointment in Paris it was that she didn’t medal again despite coming close. She was fifth in the 400-meter freestyle S7 and sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke SB6.

“I was kind of disappointed, if I’m being honest, because I feel like my races didn’t really show what I was capable of,” she said. “But also the Games are so insane, and I think I did the best that I could. You want to medal, that’s the goal, but overall, I’m a lot happier now looking back at my performances than I was in the moment.”

Lettenberger is now at Loughborough University, a large school in a small town in central England. It’s the opposite of Rice, she said, which was a small school in a very large city, but she’s enjoying the calmer, more relaxed atmosphere and sense of community. Her classes right now mostly consist of physics, coding and learning about different injuries, then in the spring she’ll pick a research project. There are only about 25 people in the program, she said, mostly from the United Kingdom but also Mexico and Cypress.

She’s also a member of the swim team, training six days a week and competing around the region, and even joined the wheelchair basketball team just for fun.

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed since being here is there’s a really big Para sport community,” she said. “(Joining the wheelchair basketball team) is something I wouldn’t be able to do in the States. Rice didn’t have a wheelchair basketball team. I was the only Para athlete there. So having that community here, and having Para sports be very embraced, is one of the coolest differences in regards to the treatment of disability. They’re a little further along in advocacy and awareness of Para sport.”

Lettenberger already has taken advantage of the opportunity to see more of England, having been to London several times as well as Manchester and Birmingham. Her wish list for the next two years also includes Scotland, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

She’s also leaving the door open for another big trip in 2028 … to Los Angeles.

“I would love to go to LA, especially with it being a home Games,” she said. “And I’m still swimming this year at Loughborough, so I’m going to take it year by year. But I think right now I’m leaning toward yes, I would love to keep going until LA.” 

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.