PARIS, France — UNI senior Olivia Chambers just made history at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
Two years after making her first appearance on the para swimming circuit, Chambers won a gold medal in the women's S13 400-meter freestyle in Paris, according to a release from UNI's athletics department.
Chambers is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas who is legally blind due to a mitochondrial gene deletion condition. She has become the university's first Paralympic medalist while also joining the list of other medal-winning athletes from the school.
The last athlete to be added to that list was Bill Smith in 1952 after a gold medal performance in wrestling at the summer Olympic games in Helsinki Finland.
Chambers is also the first American swimmer to win the S13 400-meter freestyle at the Paralympics since Rebecca Meyers set the world, Paralympic and American records at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
In her event, Chambers placed first with a time of 4:29.93. The second place finisher, Carlotta Gilli of Italy, came in at 4:31.83
In the preliminary heats, Chambers dominated after beating the second place swimmer in one of her heats by over 17 seconds.
Chambers returned to the pool today, competing in the women's S13 50m Freestyle, where she finished 5th with a time of 27.65--only 0.9 seconds behind first place.
Editor Note: The below article originally aired Aug 14, 2024.
