Glen Ellyn teen heading to Paralympics swimming trials
Ahalya Lettenberger always has been a fierce competitor.
She played soccer and she played softball, but ultimately her disability made it difficult to continue either.
“It was too hard on my legs and my hips,” she said.
The 15-year-old from Glen Ellyn has arthrogryposis, a musculoskeletal condition that has weakened her muscles from the waist down, dislocated her hips, locked the joints in her ankles and restricted her knee movement to about 90 degrees.
When a neighbor suggested Ahalya join the Wheaton Swim Club, she pushed back at first.
“I was a little bit skeptical. I didn't really want to be treated differently,” she said. “But once I got introduced to it, it was like a whole new world. It was amazing.”
It's been only four years since Ahalya started swimming, but she has excelled in ways that are impressing swim coaches nationwide and ranking her high among other swimmers with disabilities. She took home a gold medal from the Parapan Am Games in Toronto last year and has been invited to participate in the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials in North Carolina next week, where she'll compete in the 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter breaststroke, 50-meter freestyle and 400-meter freestyle.
“I love the freedom the water gives me,” she said. “When I'm in the water it's just like I'm like everybody else.”
Ahalya said when she attended her first paralympic meet she was struck by how welcoming everyone was and how well she could relate to her competitors.
“Everybody's like one big family,” she said. “We all support each other and everybody there has overcome so much.”
Her coach, Bob Strube, said he works with a lot of talented people — including several other swimmers who have gone to Olympic trials — but Ahalya stands out because she is a hard worker, extra competitive and makes the most of her talent.
“When you put all those things together it turns into somebody who is going to the trials,” he said with a smile. “She has a chance to make the team, but it's also an experience for her to learn from.”
Ahalya said she isn't sure how good her chances are to get to the Rio Paralympic Games this year, but she is going to trials confident and ready to have fun and try her best.
“I'm young, so I could have another shot,” she said.
More than 100 swimmers will be at the trials and Ahalya will be among the youngest. At the end of the three-day event, 21 women and 10 men with a wide range of disabilities and visual impairments will be named to the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Team.
During the summer, Ahalya trains in the pool twice a day for two hours at a time, five days a week. She swims another two hours every Saturday and completes an hour of “dryland” exercises three times a week.
In the winter, she balances her classwork at Glenbard West High School with two-hour training sessions six days a week.
“It's a lot of pressure for a 15-year-old girl,” said Ahalya's mother, Anna Lettenberger. “She still loves swimming, but she's feeling a lot of expectation. If she doesn't make it I still want her to be proud of herself. She's worked so hard and all of us are so proud of her for getting so far in such a short period of time.”
Results will be posted online at USParalympics.org/2016TeamTrials on July 3.