AKRON, Ohio — Swimming has always been something that called to recent University of Akron graduate Grace Nuhfer.
Her goals as a young girl were lofty, but she was confident in herself.
"When I was little—in club at 10 years old, even—our coach would be like, 'Not all of you guys are going to be Olympians,' and I would be like, 'No, I am. No, I'm going to be an Olympian,'" Nuhfer said.
Nuhfer put her all into swimming because in a world of sports, it was the one in which she could really compete.
"My sister and I definitely had a different childhood than most people. We were diagnosed at a very young age with a genetic disorder called brittle cornea syndrome, which is a subset of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. So basically it gives us a long list of symptoms, I guess you could say, including loose joints, loose ligaments, and for us, the main thing was, as brittle cornea syndrome may insinuate, extremely fragile and misshapen corneas."
With little research to go on, as there are so few recorded cases of the syndrome, Nuhfer had to take extra caution as a child.
When her peers were signing up for soccer and softball, she and her sister were weighing out what sports they might be able to participate in.
"Growing up, it was just figuring that out and the eye doctors pressed into us, 'You have to keep their eyes safe,'" she recalled. "Anything that would hurt us or could hit our eyes if something happened that was off the table completely. So it kind of left dance, track and swim—which I participated in all three—but with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and the loose joints and ligaments, dance and track were very hard on the joints, and so it really just left swim."
With one sport that made sense, Nuhfer has poured her all into it. Competing collegiately at the University of Akron was an impressive feat on its own. But over her four years as a Zip, it would be low on the list of her many impressive accomplishments.
Last year, Nuhfer's childhood dream became a reality when she made Team USA's S13 Paralympic swimming team. After trials and making the team in June, Nuhfer traveled across the pond for prep camps and eventually, the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France.
Nuhfer soaked it all in, trading pins with the other athletes in the village, spending time with her teammates and enjoying life in Europe before competing in front of thousands of spectators inside La Défense Arena.
She still finds it hard to wrap her head around.
"It was just so many cool moments and experiences away from the pool that are crazy enough to think about, let alone then the experience of actually being on deck, being in the La Défense Arena in Paris, and stepping on the blocks and officially becoming a Paralympian and then coming home with a medal. It just was such a rollercoaster and whirlwind, to even still, it's hard to wrap my head around everything that happened," Nuhfer said.
That medal was the silver in the S13 100-meter butterfly. When she won it, the first thing she did was run straight to her family. They all shared hugs and Nuhfer felt the love. That continued back here in Akron as well.
When Nuhfer returned to her housing in Akron, it was later in the evening. Her roommate picked her up, telling her they'd come back down to haul her many suitcases and Paralympic gear and goodies inside. As she walked into the house, she was greeted by her entire Zips swimming and diving team.
"It was such a sweet moment. I was like, 'Oh, they're all here,'" she said. "And the first thing I wanted to do was go pull out my medal and show them. Because it was one of those things where, yes, I did this, but it wasn't me. That race where I won the medal was representative of everyone who had been in my corner, everyone who had supported me, the team here who never stopped believing in me, even in moments where I might not have believed in myself. And that race was so much more than the time I went or the place I got. It was a celebration of the journey thus far and the people. And so I was just like, 'Let me show you what we won,' because I would not have been able to do it without this team here."
Nuhfer's love of swimming stems both from what it has allowed her to achieve amid her visual impairment and from the bonds she's created in the sport.
But if the success of a silver medal wasn't enough to be proud of, Nuhfer recently achieved something else remarkable.
Nuhfer had clocked some good times in her 200-meter butterfly over her years of competing. It's what she prides herself on the most. That is her event. She had set records at races, even doing it at a meet in Cleveland last year. But there's a certain criterion for a time to qualify as an official world record, which the meets she clocked her quick times in didn't quite meet.
Until last month.
Nuhfer knew she could set a world record. She had the time; she just needed the criteria. Competing in the TYR Pro Swim Series in Sacramento, California, last month with some of her Paralympic friends, Nuhfer realized the meet checked off everything needed to qualify for a world record.
So she hit the water and she swam. Nuhfer finished the 200-meter butterfly in 2:22.78, breaking the 2018 world record in the women’s 200-meter butterfly S13, which previously sat at 2:24.07.
Months after returning from the Paralympic Games, breaking a world record was just what Nuhfer needed.
"It was just so fun to have that and kind of get my spark and my love for swimming back after Games because everyone talks about the post-Games lows and coming back from that and finding energy and excitement again for the sport is definitely challenging. So, hitting that world record mark and being able to do it with my friends was really special and definitely something I needed to happen personally," she said.
It's been quite the run recently for Nuhfer. The medal, the world record, the experiences and the accomplishments. She's had to balance all of that out with her graduation from Akron.
As she heads into life after college, she's not sure what her future holds. But she's going to keep swimming and looking to achieve more feats.
Whatever the future holds, Nuhfer knows that she's already made the 10-year-old version of her—the little girl with dreams of being an Olympian—incredibly proud.
"My mom, with her wor,k would write goals on sticky notes. And so there was a sticky note that she gave to me. She's like, 'Write your goals.' ...And then at the bottom, in all caps, I wrote BECOME AN OLYMPIAN," Nuhfer said. "I think telling her about the Paralympics, I think little Grace would be in awe. It'd be so cool."
