'Straight out of a fairy tale': After hurdles, Paralympic swimmer Morgan Ray set for Paris

Morgan Ray lifted his Paralympics cap, his eyes quickly scanning for the words on the underside of the visor that said it all.

The two words: "Made it."

The St. Johns County resident and former Bartram Trail High School swimmer has indeed made it on the road to France, counting down the days until he races for the United States at the Paralympic Games.

In Paris, the 21-year-old is scheduled to swim at least two events, maybe more. He's locked into the lineup for the men's 100-meter breaststroke and the 200 individual medley, and could also get the call to race for the United States in various relays.

In his final week in Jacksonville before hitting the road for training, the First Coast's newest Paralympian absorbed the cheers from dozens of young club teammates Wednesday at the Bolles School.

On the current schedule, Ray is set to spend close to a month at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Then it's off to Europe, first a spell in Germany to adjust to the European climate and overcome any jet lag, followed by the Paralympics themselves from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.

For years, it's been a dream for Ray, who is also studying at the University of North Florida.

"Right now at home I've got a piece of paper he wrote probably when he was 8 or 9, saying, 'I'm going to be a Paralympian,'" said his father, Matt Ray.

Now, it's a reality, and the to-do list for Paris is growing by the day.

"I've got to have a croissant. I need to have one of those," Morgan Ray said. "I'm excited. It's Paris, I mean, the Eiffel Tower and all that. That's straight out of a fairy tale."

Clearing the hurdles

Ray was diagnosed at 11 weeks with achondroplasia, a genetic condition that affects the growth of bone tissue and is considered the most frequent form of dwarfism, with a prevalence of between 1 in 20,000 and 1 in 30,000 as estimated by the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

His Olympic dream began to blossom when he was 6 years old once he met Gainesville swimmer Miranda Uhl, a Paralympic gold medalist and world record-breaker in 2008 in Beijing who was also born with achondroplasia. In or out of the pool, Ray's competitive spirit hasn't waned.

"There were so many practices when I was growing up that I'd have to catch up with everyone, play catch-up the whole practice, touch-and-go on the wall, just embracing that underdog mindset," he said. "And I remember when I played soccer when I was younger, walking up before the game where we'd shake hands and all that.

"There'd be a couple of kids that would just be a little ignorant and look at me like, 'Oh, this is going to be easy.' And I gave them a fight. I was our team's starting goalie, and I did not allow many goals."

Then came swimming, and the long commutes and long practice sessions at the Bolles Sharks program that's produced Olympic legends like Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Murphy , where Ray grew into a force in world para swimming.

Yet on top of the physical obstacles — he stands 4 feet, 5 inches tall, near the nationally-recorded average height for adult males with achondroplasia — he's weathered a host of near misses and disappointments.

In 2021, while still a teenager, Ray thought he had a chance to make the United States' roster for the Paralympics in Tokyo. Instead, he ended up as the first alternate, the highest-placed athlete not on the team.

Then, after qualifying for his first World Para Swimming Championships in 2022 in Madeira, Portugal, Ray expected that he would finally get the chance to test his speed for the United States against the planet's best.

That all changed when a COVID-19 test — later determined to be a false positive — knocked him out of action. He still won silver in the 100 breast on the meet's penultimate day, but by then, the positive test had pinned him inside his hotel room for most of the competition and forced him to scratch most of his schedule.

Fast forward to the 2023 world meet in Manchester, England, and COVID-19 issues struck again. While he did make it into the pool, he finished off the medal stand with a fourth place in the SB6 100 breast.

"All these adversities that I've had to overcome, it's just rebuilt and built up my character," he said. "My confidence has never been higher."

Becoming Batman

Some swimmers are just swimmers. When Ray hits the water, he's Batman.

He said his Batman persona was born at the end of a training session after a comment from one of his Bolles Sharks teammates, South Carolina signee Anthony Whittall.

"We were cooling down and I think I was just crawling on the lane line, just super dead tired," he said. "And one of the guys said, 'He's Batman!' And it just started from there."

It's a nickname he's embraced, even donning a Batman mask for photos with young swimmers on Wednesday ahead of his trip to Colorado. And while he doesn't bring any physical superpowers to the water, Ray has developed a champion's mentality.

"He's been working really, really hard to get his mental game up to the level of his physical game," said Bolles senior swimming coach Alexis Keto. "I think that was the big difference."

Ray said he's learned to remain patient and to focus on the big picture.

"I've finally been able to realize that everyone's journey is different in the sport, and especially in Paralympics," he said. "You just have so many different stories and trauma and all sorts of things. Embracing your journey is really crucial, because you can't play that comparison game."

Making the cut

Ray places his mind in rewind for a moment, and in a flash, it's around 8:30 a.m. on June 30, a time he won't forget.

That's when he joined a room packed with fellow swimming hopefuls following last month's Paralympic Trials in Minnesota, awaiting the call from USA Para Swimming in a suspenseful atmosphere that Ray described as "like American Idol."

"I was sitting in the room with the whole team and all those eligible to make it, and they were just calling them one by one," he recalled. "You'd kind of get a little applause, but you also want to be courteous to the people that didn't make it."

Ray fully expected to make the cut. After all, he had just won two races in the SM6 class at the U.S. Paralympic Trials at the University of Minnesota. But Paralympic selection procedures are far more complicated than the standard two-per-event formula that USA Swimming uses for the Olympics, and until he heard his name, he didn't know for sure.

One name. Then another. Then another. Finally…

"When I heard my name, it all sounded like it came out really slowly. The lady who announced it was like, 'Moooooooorgan.' Then, I'm like, 'Oh, it's me,' and then it hit me and I started tearing up.

"A lot of my teammates had seen the work that I've put in for years, and they all turned around and just looked at me. It just flooded in, memories from over the years and everything."

Building momentum for Paris

Since his world championship appearance last year, Ray hasn't slowed down.

"A lot of early mornings, a lot of late nights, a lot of focusing on recovery and nutrition," Ray said. "I'm just wanting to go that extra mile more than anyone else."

Last fall, he set an American para swimming record in the 200 breast, touching in 2:48.65, and he retained that momentum entering June's Paralympic Trials at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. In the 100 breast, Ray swam a first-place time of 1:22.32, just barely off his personal best.

The clock said Ray was swimming full speed ahead. Internally, the story was a little more complicated.

"I was so nervous I couldn't even breathe in the call room. I was shaking so much I was worried that I was going to false-start because I was shaking on the blocks, although I didn't," he said. "But day three for my 200 IM, I was the calmest I've ever been in any race, I think."

Then came the four-stroke 200 individual medley, where he first dominated the preliminary round and then won the final in 2:51.60. That marked an improvement of nearly six seconds from his pre-meet seed time.

"I wanted to have that 200 IM on day three, really nail it in the coffin, and that's what I did," he said. "I just wanted to make sure there was no doubt at all leaving the meet that I did all I could, and hope for the best."

Going by the numbers, Ray is a strong contender to become Northeast Florida's most recent Paralympic medalist, a list that includes athletes from sports ranging from Andre Shelby (2016, archery) to LeAnn Shannon (1996, wheelchair racing).

The key, he said, is to stay calm and composed, just as he did last month in Minnesota.

"I want to repeat that kind of feeling [from the 200 IM at Paralympic Trials] because it was just so easy," he said. "I think I just went into the back seat and let my muscle memory take control."

In Paris, he will also have his family making the trip to cheer on every stroke, something that wouldn't have happened in Tokyo in 2021 because of coronavirus protocols.

"He's stayed so true to his dream for such a long time," Matt Ray said. "To see it happen to your kids is just so special."

For Morgan Ray, Paris is almost here. After so many setbacks, he's made it.

"I think it'll probably hit me when I'm moved in or probably after my first race or something," he said. "It's coming and going and it still doesn't feel real yet, because for so many years I've wanted to call myself [a Paralympian] but I haven't been one.

"Now I can call myself that, so it feels a little weird, which is funny. It's just been a dream of mine for so long, and I've been so ready to embrace it."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 'Straight out of a fairy tale': After hurdles, Paralympic swimmer Morgan Ray set for Paris