Eden Schroeder, The Country’s Lone S1 Swimmer, Is Carving A New Path In Para Swimming

Eden Schroeder is coming up on her “Life Day,” the anniversary of the spinal cord injury that changed her life five years ago at the end of November.

Every year, she and her two roommates take a trip to mark the occasion — once they went to the Dominican Republic — but they never tell Schroeder where they’re going until a week before. It may be an unconventional way to commemorate the accident that left her a quadriplegic, but Schroeder chooses to approach it with the same optimism and gratitude she brings to most things.

“I always tell everyone it’s more a celebration of what you’ve been able to accomplish since your injury,” she said. “A lot of people sometimes get sad or sentimental, but if you celebrate that you’re alive, it makes it a better day.”

A lifelong competitive swimmer, Schroeder was just 18 when she dove off a boat near Naples, Florida, not realizing there was a sandbar only three feet below the surface. She broke her neck, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down, with paralysis also in her hands and triceps.

Returning to the pool in such a radically different body was a shock, Schroeder said.

“It’s nothing like what I was expecting because when I was swimming able-bodied, I was very independent and on my own,” she said. “Now I have a team of people that I need to be with me in order to compete. So that was a little jarring in the beginning. But being in the water was the same feeling of competence and being able to be on your own. It’s one of the only avenues that I can do that now. That was the only part that translated over, that once you’re in the water it’s just you racing.”

Schroeder’s team consists primarily of Heather and Austin Jones. Heather was Schroeder’s physical therapist when she first arrived at Atlanta’s Shepherd Center for rehabilitation, and the two became close. Schroeder eventually moved in with the couple, and Heather is now her personal care assistant who’s on deck with her at every meet, helping her get in and out of the pool and do what she needs to do in order to compete.

Her first taste of Para competition was at the 2023 Jimi Flowers Classic at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado.

“I think just being able to be at that facility was mind-blowing to me because when I was able-bodied I never got to that level to be able to go to the Training Center,” she said. “And I also didn’t know what classification I was going to get, so I got classed there, and it was wild to me that I was the only S1 and one of only two in the world.”

It’s that last part that has been a tough pill for Schoeder to swallow.

Para swimming classifications range from S1 to S14, with S1 representing the greatest level of physical impairment. Because women’s S1 events aren’t included in the program for the Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028, Schroeder faces a unique challenge. To qualify for the national team ahead of LA 2028, she must compete in an eligible sport class, meaning she would need to race against S2 and S3 athletes who have greater function and mobility in different strokes and distances.

“Coming to terms with, OK, this is something you wanted and no matter how hard you try it’s just not possible, was hard,” said Schroeder, who holds national S1 records including the 50-meter and 100-meter backstroke. “I’ve been able to push through that and realize that showing up is going to help other people and help lower classes to get involved. But it took a lot of perseverance and self-belief, even now, continuing to show up knowing that unless something changes and more S1s come around that I won’t be able to reach those goals. I can’t change my disability, and I can’t work harder for it. It just is what it is.”

Schroeder said she was surprised to learn that there aren’t more S1 women, but she also gets it.

The time and amount of support it takes to get to the pool for regular practices, let alone competitions, is significant, and she knows not everyone has people in their life like Heather and Austin. But she hopes she can inspire others to be a part of the sport, and that things might change to the point where she can one day compete against similarly-abled athletes at the highest level.

And when she does feel overwhelmed, she remembers the weeks after the accident when she wasn’t able to move her arms and thinks about the support she has and all she’s accomplished so far.

“I don’t want to take it for granted,” she said. “I know there are so many other people in my position who would love to be able to move their arms like me or go to school or do Para swimming, but they don’t have the support or the physical capabilities to do so.”

Even if she never goes to the Paralympics, Schroeder still has goals for the sport and beyond. She counsels newly injured patients at the Shepherd Center and last spring graduated from Georgia State with a degree in psychology. She is currently in graduate school at Mercer University in Decatur pursuing her doctorate in clinical psychology and wants to help people with spinal cord injuries navigate and build their new lives. Her greatest piece of advice is to have goals.

“I think the biggest thing is just finding a goal and purpose for life,” she said. “I found chosen family and people who are going to help me accomplish the things I’ve done, so finding good people and a good support system, if you’re able, is a really huge thing with disability. But outside of that, just having a goal and purpose, whether it’s online school because you can’t drive yet, or don’t have a ride, there’s some avenue to get out of a lot of situations and there’s a lot you can do to adapt and make it work. You just have to be willing to put in the effort to find it.”