A little more than 7 years ago, Eliza Wilder was born with a rare spinal cord defect known as spina bifida — leaving her without function in the lower half of her body. Last week, she won six gold medals in swimming at the Hartford Nationals in Hoover, Ala.

“She got started in the water when she was 9 months old for aquatic therapy, and she has loved it ever since,” Sarah Wilder, Eliza’s mother, said. “Last year, her physical trainer mentioned that Eliza is really comfortable in the water and she might like joining a summer swim team.”

Ever since then, Eliza has swum with Athens’ summer swim team, the Athens Gators. During the course of her swimming career, Eliza has made some close relationships in the sport competing against completely able-bodied swimmers.

“A lot of the older kids on the team lookout for the younger kids on the team,” James Wilder, Eliza’s father, said. “It used to crack me up last year when my daughter would come home, she’d have this big smile and she’d tell me about all the new friends she made on the girl’s squad.”

Much like the Athens community, the Athens summer swim team fully welcomed their newest member with open arms, sprouting her interest to continue swimming outside of summer. However, due to a lack of resources and the loss of facilities in the Athens area, the Wilder family was left trying to find somewhere for their daughter to compete.

“The minute a few of the older girls found out Eliza was interested in swimming year-round, they made sure she could do so,” James said. “When we went to the state competition last year, two of the older girls walked up and introduced us to their year-round coach in Decatur, because they knew she would have a chance to be on the team.”

While swimming with the Decatur team last year outside of the summer season, the Wilder family was surprised to find another swimmer with a disability in a wheelchair. Opening the door for Eliza’s next journey in the world of swimming.

“It was mind boggling to us, because we were always the only ones with a wheelchair,” Sarah said. “That’s when we found out about the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, so she ended up joining their swim team as well.”

The Lakeshore Foundation is an officially designated olympic and paralympic training site, which hosts national and international training for athletes in various different sports. When Eliza joined their swim team, for the first time in her career, she began to swim against equal bodied competition with similar disabilities to her own.

“That’s really when we started realizing that Eliza is really good, and she is only 7, which is very young for a para swimmer,” Sarah said. “She got classified at a meet in Cincinnati in May, then she got to meet a lot of the Team USA paralympic coaches, then she qualified to swim at the national event.”

The Hartford Nationals is the longest running national championship event for paralympic athletes in the world, hosting an array of sports over a weeklong competition. With the World Games coming to Birmingham last year, the Hartford Nationals took place in Hoover from July 8-14.

“She won a gold (medal) in the six events she swam in, swimming in five individual and one relay event with teammates,” Sarah said. “She also set three national records, so she is really just riding high right now, so as a parent it is really cool to see.”

Eliza took home first place in the following events; 25m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 25m backstroke, 50m backstroke, and the backstroke leg of the 100m medley. Setting the national record in the 25m freestyle, 100m freestyle, and the 50m backstroke.

“Swimming isn’t exactly easy for me, but it’s really fun, I like that I can move my body differently in the water,” Eliza said. “I was really proud of myself when I won, because I had worked super hard and was nervous to go against all the older swimmers.”