LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Representing your country on the world stage is every athlete’s dream. This summer in Paris there will be plenty of names with Arkansas ties going for the gold, but for one Little Rock swimmer, believing is much more than seeing.
For Olivia Chambers, life is easier beneath the surface.
“I love being in the water and I love getting up and racing,” she said.
The 21-year-old Little Rock native currently swims for the University of Northern Iowa, and soon Team USA.
“I’ve always dreamed of this moment since I started the sport and you see all the swimmers on TV wearing the flag cap with their name underneath it and I’ve always wanted that," Olivia said.
Olivia’s eyes have always been on the Olympics, but when she was just 16 the visions of winning the gold were nearly taken away.
“For the first year and a half the doctors told me I would get my vision back, so I just kept holding out hope,” she explained.
Olivia was diagnosed with multiple mitochondrial gene deletion syndrome and then received even tougher news.
“But then the doctors told me my vision would not come back so that was kind of a curveball,” she said.
Deterred but not defeated, Olivia returned to the thing she loved most— the pool.
“I kept swimming because it was the one thing that was constant in my life,” she added.
With the help of her coach Ben Colin, Olivia has become one of the best swimmers in the country.
"[We] get some pace clocks that we can put at the end of her lane, we make sure she swims in a lane that she can see the pace clock," Coach Colin described. "We give her sets all verbally where typically we might write the setup on a whiteboard.”
With the help of her coach, her teammates, and her family, Olivia is going from familiar pools all the way to Paris, after she was selected as just one of 33 Americans to compete in the 2024 Paralympic Games.
“They were there the day it started when my world flipped upside down. They helped me stay positive and helped me talk through my feelings and helped me every step of the way," Olivia said. "They’ve helped me learn how to live as a visually impaired person and it’s something I could have never done alone.”
As she gets ready to say au revoir to Arkansas and America, her sights are set firmly on the gold.
“I want to get there and have the best time possible. Have a great time with my teammates and just take it all in," she added.
The 17th edition of the Summer Paralympic Games is scheduled to run from August 28 through September 8.