Norton Resident Represents MA. Twice Internationally

Beth Morley was having a conversation with a neighbor when she heard a splash from behind her. It was her four-year-old daughter Elise who had fallen in the pool and quickly began struggling.

 

After diving in to save her daughter, Morley knew she needed to send Elise to swim lessons to prevent any further incidents. Now 22, Elise Morley has competed in two Parapan American Games and with eyes set on qualifying for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.

 

The young Morley did not take kindly to her swim lessons. She faked being sick each school day that physical education designated to being out at the pool, her mother saying she’d put a bucket over her head to sell the idea. 

 

Some of this might be because she was born without her left hand and how she dealt with it at that age, but regardless of the fact she would someday become elite.

 

“I really dreaded going every single week, but one day it just clicked and I ended up loving it,” Elise Morley said. 

 

At one point she started to excel faster than those around her and from there, a passion was born. She spent much of her early competitive years racing with a YMCA team for several years and in 2015 realized that she should enter the Paralympic level. While on her Road to Rio, she met her future boss Adaptive Sports New England President Joe Walsh.

 

She didn’t quite make it to Rio de Janeiro but she was competing in all types of local, and national events. Within the teams she competed on, she was frequently a person the other swimmers respected.

 

“I was often one of the older athletes in the groups and I felt like a lot of the swimmers looked up to me because I was doing a lot of like really big events,” She explained. “It put me in a mentor role at a pretty young age which also drove me to be better.”

 

As much of a positive that it was, Elise reflects on the pressures and expectations she held over herself as a mistake as an adolescent.

 

“I feel like if I could go back I would tell myself to take it less seriously,” she said. “Not in the sense of training, but in all the moments outside of the pool.”

 

All of her hard work would display itself as she continued to press on and she would place at the 2018 and 2019 World Para Swimming World Series, the 2018 U.S. Paralympics Swimming Para National Championships, and eventually qualified for her first Parapan American Games in 2019 at the age of 18. 

 

She then packed her bags and traveled with her family to Lima, Peru for the contest. Her experience helped her calm the nerves of the big stage finishing second in the 4x100 relay and third 50m freestyle.

 

“Lima was one of the most fun I had swimming,” She said. “I had done a lot of big events before so I wasn’t necessarily too stressed. Then you realize that you have all of these people around supporting you. It was one of my most vivid memories.”

 

Her mother Beth remembers it as well as she was belting her name from the top of the stands.

 

“I’m probably too loud,” Beth Morley said. “My husband will always make fun of me telling me she can’t hear under the water, but I don’t care that’s just how proud and supportive I am.”

 

Following the competition, Morley would head off to Wheaton College where she wasn’t so much a fan of the swim program. Training became secondary to her job as a coach/instructor through Angel Fish and Adaptive Sports New England. 

 

Past the pandemic, she’d done enough to be in the position to qualify for her second Parapan American Games and didn’t let it slip up. This time the venue was Santiago, Chile which Elise noted was one of the most beautiful facilities she had seen.

 

Competing in just the 100 butterfly, her time was only good enough for sixth place. The underwhelming result has helped reinforce her love for competitive swimming.

 

“There was a point in my career where I wasn’t sure why I was doing it,” she explained. “But After the race, I was like this is what I loved. It was supposed to be fun and for a while, I think the pressures I created didn’t make it that way … The events weren’t necessarily great for me, but I sort of soaked it all in more.”

 

Whether it is competitions like Paris or volunteering as an instructor, Morley doesn't believe she could be separated from the pool fully. When asked if the young 14-year-old Elise who wanted to swim at the Paralympics would be proud, she said she ponders about the thought frequently.

 

“I feel like I have such a different perspective on my view now,” she said. “It initially started as like, I want to achieve this. It's really grown to want to leave a legacy of having made a difference with my swimming. Not necessarily about medals, or qualifying for competitions anymore. It's about loving what I'm doing and being able to share that love of this sport with other people.”