This fall, Malvern freshman swimmer Paul Stockett dropped five seconds from his previous best time in the 200 breaststroke to qualify for the U.S. Swimming Minnesota Grand Prix Meet in Minneapolis in November.

His accomplishment gained him a spot at the prestigious meet, where he competed in the 200 breaststroke, the 100 breaststroke and the 400 individual medley, and rubbed elbows with many U.S. and international Olympians. While it was an experience of a lifetime to meet Olympians such as Rebecca Soni, Chloe Sutton and Ryan Lochte, just as inspiring for Paul was watching the many swimmers with disabilities at the meet compete at the national level.

According to Paul’s dad, Bob, who spoke with the Grand Prix meet directors, U.S. Swimming has a detailed policy designed to accommodate swimmers with disabilities. While Paralympic meets do exist, it is U.S. Swimming’s policy to help those disabled swimmers who wish to participate in regular meets. Accommodations could include modifications to starts or allowances for in stroke judging.

At the Minnesota Grand Prix, the disabled swimmers swam in regular heats during the preliminaries, and the first event in the finals was a multi-disability event to give those swimmers a change to swim in the finals, if they did meet the regular qualifying times.

“Watching the interactions of the disabled coaches and fellow swimmers was inspiring,” Paul said. “With all the negativity in today’s society, it helps restore one’s faith in human nature.”

But Paul was just there to watch, he was there to compete. As one of the youngest swimmers at the meet, he bettered his seeding in all three events. He finished 56th in the 200 breaststroke after being seeded 69th, 89th in the 100 breaststroke after being seeded 102nd and finished 75th in the 400 IM after being seeded 79th.

Paul is using this experience to transition well into high school swimming, where he is a top swimmer for Malvern’s varsity team.

In addition, this past summer Paul finished 126th out of 568 swimmers (and 120 more who did not finish) in a 4.4 mile swim across the Chesapeake Bay that raised money for a number of charities.