Rice University Athletics
Good As Gold
8/30/2019 5:51:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
Rice's Ahalya Lettenberger Is Set To Compete On The International Stage
For the first two weeks in September Lettenberger will be in London representing the United States (and Rice) while competing in the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships. The annual World Championships is the biggest international meet of the year for Para swimmers, and is the major lead-in to 'the' meet – the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo next summer.
A Chicago area native who just finished her first week of school (and O-Week at McMurtry College the week before that), Lettenberger is one of 17 athletes who earned their way onto the United States Para National Swim Team last April. She has been a veteran of international meets for Team USA since 2014 and wants to repeat what she has already achieved – an international Gold Medal.
"I made my first international team in 2014 and in 2015 I was named to the Para Pan American Games in Toronto," Lettenberger said. "I ended up winning Gold in the 100-meter backstroke and that was one of the best experiences in my life. I will never forget that moment of representing my country and hearing my national anthem play.
"Now the Para Swimming World Championships are coming up and this whole month (August) has been crazy," she added. "It's the first week of school and I'm already scheduled to miss more class than actually be in class. My professors have been great. I am thankful Rice is working with me on this important goal. Next year is the big goal, the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo."
USA Paralympic Swimming (the country's governing body over the sport) has already learned what Rice is beginning to learn. Lettenberger has established this pattern of lining up a series of extremely high goals… and then reaching them. She achieves goals with a consistency that now almost seems easy, but this was not always the case.
Lettenberger was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC). It is a muscular/skeleton disorder that affects her hips and below. In addition to joint restrictions, her muscle in her legs have turned into connective tissue. Her hips are dislocated and her knees can only bend to about 90 degrees. She can't move her ankles at all. Lettenberger can stand and move short distances, but anything greater than her room at McMurtry requires her wheelchair.
"When I was a lot younger I played soccer and softball, but soon the fields got too big and the other kids got too fast," Lettenberger explained. "I accepted that could not keep up, but I did not want to end my sporting career. I love sports and my family loves sports. I was desperate to find something else. My neighbors recommended joining the local swim club. As soon as I was in the water I knew I belonged. There were no braces nor wheelchairs holding me back. There was no one was staring for the way I walked.
"It was just me in the pool. The water is where I felt free."
Lettenberger the sports enthusiast had found her arena. She began competing for a youth club team, but the swim meets still had outcomes that mirrored her previous experiences.
"When I started swimming competitively I enjoyed it, but I was finishing last in every race," she recalled. "I cannot use my legs in the water, but I was competing against other kids who could. Eventually I found out about Para Swimming. I went to my first Para meet in 2013 and loved it. I can compete like I have always wanted to, on a level playing field so to speak.
"At my first Para meet I immediately had a sense that all the other competitors there have probably had the same experiences that I have had. It was new to be able to talk to other competitive athletes who truly knew and understood similar experiences."
Because international swimming and winning a 2020 Paralympic medal was still in the equation when she began to look at where to attend college, Lettenberger had a specific checklist. Sure her future school would need to combine elite academics and athletics, but it would also still need to have that little extra something. In a perfect situation her new school would provide that same feeling back when she first entered the swimming pool – that sense of belonging.
"I first found out about Rice through one of my club teammates back home in Chicago, Lindsay Mathys" (currently a junior on the team who won the Conference USA individual title in the 200-butterfly last season), Lettenberger explained. "She is a couple years older than me and was already here, so I heard about Rice and thought it sounded interesting. When I started getting into the college search, I looked at schools where I could major in Bioengineering. With Bioengineering I think I might then be able to design medical devices that could help other people with disabilities find their independence.
"Rice was right at the top of the list," she said. "I looked at a bunch of schools, but I just loved everything about Rice. It had the perfect balance of academics and athletics, and I loved meeting the rest of the team and the coaches. It felt very welcoming. It just felt like home."
There-in is Rice University's secret to success. The school with an elite curriculum and highest of academic standards is also on-board when one of its extended family members… a student… needs just a brief absence from classes in order to pursue their dream.
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