Two Years Ago, The Paris Games Opened New Horizons For Grace Nuhfer

A lot has happened in Grace Nuhfer’s life since she made her Paralympic debut in Paris two years ago.

She graduated from college, won a world title, broke a world record, moved to Chicago and started a podcast with teammate Olivia Chambers, among other big events. But as she thought back to Paris with the two-year anniversary of those Games on Aug. 28, the first memory that pops to mind is the feeling of her first race.

“(It was) a race Olivia and I shared together, and it was the excitement of, we’re about to become Paralympians and swimming side-by-side and no one can ever take that away from us once we dive in the water,” she said. “Now we’ve started a podcast together where we’re trying to uplift Paralympic voices and change the narrative about the sport and identity, so the full circle that has been these last two years has been just something really amazing.”

Nuhfer won a silver medal in her first event, the women’s 100-meter butterfly S13, on the first day of competition. To that point, the Paralympic experience in reality was pretty much the way she imagined it would be: walking out on deck for the first time, hearing the roar of the crowd, being overwhelmed and feeling the pressure but also the joy and excitement all at the same time.

What she wasn’t ready for was the aftermath of her first race. She still had three more events, including one the next day, but the 100 butterfly was her signature event.

“So it was kind of like the event I had been preparing for happened immediately,” she said. “And then I was experiencing this awful adrenaline crash, adrenaline hangover. And I felt ill and nauseous.”

She said the support of coach Patrick McCloskey as she navigated the adrenaline crash after that first race was something she’ll never forget. 

“He kind of found the pieces of where my brain had scattered and helped me put them back together and really just showed me that support on and off the pool deck,” she said. “I look back and I don’t think I would have made it through the week without him.”

Because Nuhfer medaled, she had the experience of going to the Team USA House and spending roughly two and a half hours being photographed and interviewed by various media outlets.

“It was like hey, people are watching, people are listening and they want to know what I have to say,” she said. “It was just kind of cool to have a little spotlight. At that moment, I was like, huh, I could make something out of this that’s outside of the pool or outside the natatorium, and maybe it could be something really great.”

As much as that experience helped spark the idea for a podcast, its fleeting nature helped cement the piece of the Paralympic experience that Nuhfer wasn’t necessarily expecting.

“I think where the difference really comes in is that going into it, we saw our Olympic counterparts having their time in the spotlight, their time to shine, and then we were expecting the same for us but didn’t necessarily receive it to the same degree,” she said. “I think the disparity between what I expected and what happened had a lot to do with what we see our Olympic teammates going through and what we get handed down the line.”

Now with two years to go until LA28, Nuhfer is looking forward to building back her strength in the pool, practicing intentionality and gratitude and reminding herself of her younger version who was excited to go to every single practice and every single race. She knows that LA28 may be her last hurrah as an elite swimmer, and she wants to make the most of it. 

“I went through it once and I got a taste of what it looks like to be with the best of the best, and then with worlds following Games, coming home with a gold medal, I got a taste of what it felt like to be called the best in the world,” she said. “I can sit here and talk about the cliches of, oh, I want to have fun and I want to support my teammates and I want to be present and I want to be in the moment, which, yes, 100 percent to those things. I definitely do. But I think now that we’re getting closer, I am ready. I am excited to go compete. I hate losing and no matter what the results are, I just want to be able to come home and say I gave it my all.”

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.