University of Akron swimmer and Greenwood native Grace Nuhfer will represent Team USA at the Parapan American Games this month in Santiago, Chile.
Submitted photo | Akron Athletics
Grace Nuhfer remembers back when she was a 10-year-old cutting her teeth with the Greenwood Gators swim club. As she recalls, her coaches said something one day about how swimming is supposed to be for fun and not everybody is going to make it to the Olympics.
“Oh, no — I’m going to the Olympics,” a young Nuhfer replied.
She’s pretty close to making that defiant 10-year-old look prophetic.
Next week, the Greenwood graduate and current University of Akron junior will travel to Santiago, Chile, where she’ll represent the United States at the Parapan American Games. Nuhfer will compete in the butterfly and freestyle.
“Honestly, I feel part of it hasn’t really even sunk in yet,” Nuhfer said. “I’m still — I think day by day, it’s becoming more and more real. … I don’t think it will fully sink in until I land in Chile.”
This will be just the second para meet for Nuhfer, who has raced against able-bodied swimmers since she was 7 years old and more than held her own. During her high school career, she was a three-time state qualifier and won multiple Johnson County, Mid-State Conference and sectional championships in the 100-yard butterfly.
Para swimming was never really on Nuhfer’s radar until midway through high school, when she and some of her Woodmen teammates volunteered at a Para Swimming World Series meet at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.
“For me that was such an eye-opening experience,” Nuhfer said. “Getting to be around all of those athletes and not only seeing how incredible and hard-working they are, but also feeling validated and feeling … for the first time I feel like I can relate to people on this level regarding impairments and disabilities that I’ve battled with throughout the years.”
Nuhfer has brittle cornea syndrome, an extremely rare genetic disease found in only about 1,000 Americans and one that has left Nuhfer legally blind; swim goggles aren’t available at her prescription strength, so she’s often not able to read her times after she finishes racing.
It’s never prevented her from succeeding in the water — at least not directly. As she got acclimated to the Akron campus during her freshman year, Nuhfer estimates she endured nine ankle sprains and a fracture just from missing steps as she walked to class or practice.
“I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’m not actually disabled,’” she said, “and then I look back and I’m like, ‘You know, I don’t think that would have happened to a normal person.’”
Instead of pretending her disability isn’t real, Nuhfer instead embraced it. Over the past year, she went through the process of getting classified as a para swimmer; she’s now officially listed under the S13 classification, the least severe vision impairment that’s eligible for Paralympic competition.
She was supposed to make her para debut in May, but that was put on hold after she underwent surgery in March to repair torn ligaments in her left wrist (Nuhfer swam through the injury for much of last season, believing it was only a sprain; she now has three screws in her wrist to help hold it in place). Instead, she traveled west in mid-September for the California Classic, her lone remaining opportunity to qualify for Santiago.
Nuhfer made good on her one shot, winning all six of her events and setting an S13 American record in the 200-meter butterfly (2:30.38).
Everything in the weeks since has been a bit surreal, including opening the package containing her Team USA gear. Being able to wear those colors, though, isn’t what excites Nuhfer the most about her upcoming trip.
“A large part of me is almost more excited about meeting the people involved with para swimming,” she said. “The athletes, all of the behind-the-scenes workers, and just being in that environment again that I was in when I volunteered for that para meet however many years ago.
“Just learning about their experiences is more exciting for me than the meet itself.”
Akron coach Brian Peresie will be among the many cheering for Nuhfer, and he’s confident that she’s going to perform well.
“She’s very, very excited about this, and we’re excited for her,” Peresie said. “I was really encouraged by how well she swam (Oct. 27) against Toledo. I think she did a great job. She’s had some adversities and injuries that she’s kind of had to battle through over the last year, so it hasn’t been easy by any stretch of the imagination. … She’s been training full capacity since mid-summer, so that’s been great. She’s put in the work, and I think she’s going to have some great results.”
Depending on how she fares in Chile, there could be more big experiences in Nuhfer’s not-too-distant future. The 2024 U.S. Paralympic Team Trials will be held in Minneapolis next June 27-29; if Nuhfer does well enough there, she could potentially represent her county two months later (Aug. 29-Sept. 7) at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
The thought of making it there reminds Nuhfer of her seemingly overconfident 10-year-old self and a dream that no longer feels out of reach.
“I keep thinking back to her,” she said. “Her ambitions and her passions, what she was working for — and although my goals have kind of changed since then, obviously, it’s been really funny to see it coming back to a full circle and being like, ‘Oh, maybe this is actually a realistic opportunity.’”
