Freshman year brings a lot of life changes for college athletes, but for Olivia Chambers of the University of Northern Iowa, her freshman year brought an additional change: She had recently become blind.

Chambers began swimming competitively at age 4. At age 7, the Little Rock, Arkansas native broke a national record in the 500-yard freestyle for ages 8 and under.

Chambers has always found solace in the water. The 5-foot-5 swimmer said the sport releases all her energy and relieves her stress. She knew she would swim in college and she dreamed of becoming an Olympian.

Then, at age 16, Chambers’ vision felt normal one moment and blurry the next. She went to the optician, who diagnosed accommodation spasms but assured her there was nothing to worry about. But despite the eye drops prescribed, her vision continued to deteriorate.

Chambers continued swimming. She received offers to swim at the university level and often downplayed her visual impairment. She chose to swim for the University of Northern Iowa because she liked the team atmosphere and her coaching staff.

But after seeing several specialists, she realized she would never regain her sight. During her senior year of high school, doctors declared her blind. After this life-changing diagnosis, Chambers packed up all her things and began her freshman year of college.

“A lot of parents probably would have just been scared to send their child 11 hours away from home to college after they had just gone blind,” Chambers told Team USA. “But my parents trusted me and the people around me and let me do what I wanted to do with my life.”

When Chambers arrived in Cedar Falls, she made the transition to being a college student-athlete while also grappling with a shift in her identity and abilities. But Chambers was not alone in these changes.

“I have better coaches and teammates than I could have ever asked for,” Chambers said. “Especially when I first came, I hadn’t yet come to terms with the fact that my vision was never going to come back and I was going to be visually impaired for the rest of my life. But they really helped me accept myself and really encouraged me to take the next step and do para swimming, which has opened up all these incredible opportunities that I never would have had if they hadn’t encouraged me or if I hadn’t even gone blind, honestly.”

She has a strong bond with her teammates. Chambers, who describes herself as a “crazy person,” even said that she and her teammates would joke about her blindness to some extent.

“But they defend me when someone makes fun of me. It’s just nice to have people who are there for me when I need them,” added the Missouri Valley Conference Most Courageous Award winner.

Chambers initially had difficulty asking for help as she adjusted to swimming without vision. Her coaches recognized this and made small changes to help her. She can’t see the clock well, so her coaches count down her intervals and tell her where to swim. Instead of simply writing the workouts on the whiteboard, the coaches gather the team together to read and explain the drills.

“It might be an inconvenience for them, but they don’t care at all. The coaches have been great so far and just understand that my training is going to look a little different because of my disability,” said the 21-year-old senior. “They just motivate me and push me to keep going.”

However, there was another big change in Chambers’ swimming career: the switch to para-swimming. At first, Chambers refused to become a para-athlete.

“‘Nope, I’m not going to do that.’ I hadn’t yet come to terms with the fact that I was blind, and it wasn’t until after the conference (meeting) my freshman year that my coaches sat down, actually with my mom first, and said, ‘I think this is something she needs to do and something she can excel at.'”

After winning the Missouri Valley Conference championships her freshman year, Chambers officially decided to become a para-athlete.

Chambers quickly rose through the para-swimmer rankings. In the same year she was

As a para-athlete, she beat a 10-year-old time in the 400-meter individual medley. Three months later, she made her international debut at a World Series event in Mexico. Two months after that, the then-sophomore won three medals at the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Championships and was named swimmer of the meet.

Para-swimming has given Chambers new confidence in the water, and in fact she is now beating the times she set before she lost her sight.

As Chambers prepares for her first Paralympic Games, she is grateful to her coaches for encouraging her to become a Para athlete.

“(My coaches) said I could go far, and I believed them and I’m really glad they did,” Chambers said. “They encouraged me and helped me every step of the way.”