(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on Allegany native Martha Ruether, a vision-impaired swimmer who will compete in the 16th Paralympic Games later this summer in Tokyo.)

Her inspiring story has been documented on these pages since 2008 when Martha Ruether first became a paralympic swimmer.

Born 16 weeks early and weighing a mere 1-pound, 8-ounces, the Allegany native’s premature birth was only one issue Martha faced. The other was vision, she was blind in her left eye and had 20/400 acuity in her right.

Legally blind, she couldn’t participate in sports that used a ball, or racquet or be involved with those requiring physical contact as it would risk damaging her good retina. Thus, Ruether gravitated to swimming and quickly learned she was very good at it. Indeed, she still holds several school records at Allegany-Limestone.

Martha swam with success on the intercollegiate teams at both Lake Erie College (Painesville, Ohio) and Brockport State, but it was in paralympics, for athletes with physical, intellectual or vision impairments, that she stood out.

AND, HER greatest accomplishment to date came last weekend in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota pool, where she qualified for this summer’s Paralympic Games at Tokyo in both the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter breaststroke.

Ruether had already made a name on the international stage with gold medals in the 50 free in both Australia and Pasadena, Calif., but making the companion event to this year’s Olympiad represents a new level of accomplishment.

She explained that while finishing second in both of her events at the Paralympics trials, the yardstick is different from those for the Olympics.

“Ours is more world-ranking focused than nationally-focused,” Ruether said. “If you’re  generally in the Top 6-8 in the world, you make the team (no matter).”

Currently she’s ranked second nationally in her events, but also is in the Top 8 paralympians in the world and has rated as high as fifth in her specialty (50 free).

RUETHER actually finished eighth in the 100 breaststroke at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, in which she swam five events. 

“In these games, compared to Rio, I would just like to perform better and make the final in both events rather than just one,” she said of earning the 8-swimmer medal race.

Unfortunately, due to coronavirus, the fate of the 2020 Games, already pushed back a year, is still uncertain.

In 2020, just before the Paralympic trials in June, the Tokyo Olympiad was postponed until this summer.

Ruether, heading into her second year as graduate assistant coach at Malone University in Canton, Ohio, where she’s earning her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, had to change her training regimen.

“Due to the quarantine, I was forced to dry land … running, weightlifting with not as much pool access,” she said.

“It even affected our season (at Malone) which normally runs from October to March … this year it was February through March and we ended up having five meets in three weeks.

“In addition, our pool was under construction — we were swimming at the YMCA — and our head coach left in October.”

RUETHER will arrive in Japan with the team (24 women, 10 men) Aug. 14 and opening ceremonies are set 10 days later.

Her first event (50 free) will be Aug. 29 with her second (100 breast) on Sept. 1.

“And,” she pointed out, “due to the coronavirus we have to leave within 48 hours of our last event.” 

Then, too, the Games will be different from 2016, starting with dramatically limited crowds.

“Fan-wise that’s a little bit of a bummer, they’re not allowed to cheer, all they can do is clap, so that will be different because the Rio crowds were so energetic,” Ruether admitted. “And my parents can’t come … it gets financially taxing, but they would have loved to if they were allowed.

“As far as the Games themselves, it doesn’t seem that they will be super-crazy restricted. From what we’ve been told, we’ll be expected to wear masks and the cafeteria, which is normally (open to) the whole (Olympic) Village, they’re going to monitor the number of people in there. I’m sure it will be more restrictive than what we know now.”

She added, “One nice thing is that the (able-bodied) Olympics (July 23-Aug. 8) are our guinea pigs, so they get to do all this stuff first and we (Paralympic athletes) get to know (what it’s like) going in.”

MEANWHILE, Ruether embarks on seven weeks of solitary training before she joins her teammates heading for Tokyo.

“We’re all responsible for our own training … switching that up before the Games to an environment where the coaches don’t know you and make all these changes isn’t ideal,” she said. “Maybe our facilities aren’t in Colorado Springs (Training Center) tip-top shape but (training alone) is an environment where you’ve been successful and made the team doing what you’re doing, it’s kind of an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”

Ruether added of her pool workouts set for area schools and the YMCA, “In terms of training, I’m looking to increase a lot more power movement … focusing on things like boxing, jumping ropes and box jumps … explosive movement. In terms of sprints, you want to keep the energy up in the quick-twitch muscles.

“I’ll probably swim six days a week (but) I’ve never been one, in the last two years, to think I need to do 20,000 yards a day. I’m not a heavy yardage person … I’m an older athlete (27 on July 3) and a sprinter, so I’m on the lower end of yardage but keep the intensity high.”

(MONDAY: Ruether discusses Japan’s concern holding the Games, the uniqueness of being a disabled athlete and of being an older member of the U.S. Paralympic swim team.) 

(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)