UNI swimming: Chambers begins chase for world championship gold in England

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- UNI junior swimmer Olivia Chambers will look to punch her ticket to next summer's Paralympic Games beginning on Monday as she makes her debut at the Allianz Para Swimming World Championships in Manchester, England.

Chambers, a visually impaired, S13 classified swimmer who has competed on the para swimming circuit since mid-2021, will swim six events at the Manchester Aquatics Center during the weeklong meet.

The Little Rock, Arkansas native won't be the only Panther on deck in Manchester, as UNI assistant coach Ben Colin will serve on the coaching staff for the 39-person U.S. team.

Among her six scheduled events, Chambers heads to Manchester as the top-seed in the S13 400-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley. Chambers sits atop an 11-person 400-meter freestyle field with the top four seeds separated by just over one second, while also leading reigning world record holder Carlotta Gilli of Italy by 1.06 seconds.

Chambers enters this year's world championship meet the holder of six para swimming world records, including a pair of S13 records set this month in Cedar Falls at the BLAST Summer Sizzler in the 400-meter individual medley and 200-meter butterfly. She also holds world records in the 400-yard individual medley (4:29.27 at the 2022 Kansas Classic), the 200-yard butterfly (2:10.99 at the 2023 Coyote Invite), the 50-yard backstroke (26.52) and the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:20.93), with the latter two being set at February's Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Championships in Iowa City.

Last December, Chambers became UNI's first-ever Paralympic swimming national champion, winning the 400-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley at the U.S. Paralympic Swimming National Championships in Charlotte. Her breakout performance also earned her Swimmer of the Meet honors by virtue of accumulating the best overall point total among competing swimmers.

Chambers' first international competition came last October at the Citi Para Swimming World Series event in Mexico, claiming silver in the 400-meter freestyle and bronze in the 100-meter butterfly. She also swam at the Para World Series meet in Minneapolis in April, winning bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke and 400-meter freestyle, while earning gold in the 200-meter individual medley.

An All-MVC honoree at the 2023 MVC Championships, Chambers took seventh place in the 1650-yard freestyle, and also placed 20th in the 500-yard freestyle with a personal best performance.

She is the daughter of Alison and Brad Chambers, and is currently majoring in biology.

OLIVIA CHAMBERS 2023 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

(Prelim sessions begin at 3 a.m. CT / Finals begin at 11:30 a.m. CT)

July 31 - S13 100m Butterfly (Direct Final)
- 1:06.81 seed time (2nd)
August 1 - SB13 100m Breaststroke (Direct Final)
- 1:18.39 seed time (4th)
August 2 - S13 100m Freestyle (Prelim/Final)
- 1:00.89 seed time (4th)
August 4 - S13 50m Freestyle (Prelim/Final)
- 25.58 seed time (6th)
August 5 - S12/S13 400m Freestyle (Prelim/Final)
- 4:33.75 seed time (1st)
August 6 - SM12/SM13 200m Individual Medley (Prelim/Final)
- 2:26.82 seed time (1st)

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