FORT CARSON, Colo. — As the American flag rose inside the sprawling, trapezoid-shaped, Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Army Paralympic swimmer Elizabeth Marks looked up as tears rolled onto her white mask.
The U.S. national anthem blared on loudspeakers, as emotion overwhelmed her during the medal ceremony.
Marks, the Army World Class Athlete Program’s most decorated athlete, eclipsed the all-time world mark in the women’s 100-meter backstroke finishing with a time of 1 minute and 19.57 seconds at the 2021 Paralympic Games. And the Soldier reached the milestone after the amputation of her left leg in 2017 and with visual impairments.
Yet seconds after her historic finish, she waded in the pool and outstretched her hand to congratulate her competitors. Then 16-year old Chinese swimmer Jiang Yuyan, who lost her right arm and right leg in a car accident at age 4, finished a tick behind Marks and also bested the previous world best. Marks admittedly didn’t know she had broken the record until after leaving the pool.
“I was surprised, and I was also really excited,” said Marks, reflecting on the race two and a half years later. “Because there was another young woman [Jiang] in my race who had broken the world record, just not quite as fast as me.
“So it was two people that broke a world record in one race which is very, very exciting.”
Years of competitive swimming, culminated in a career performance at the Tokyo Paralympics. She left Tokyo with a gold, silver and bronze medal.
Now Marks, 33, remains a favorite to qualify for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris when the Paralympic Swimming Team Trials begin June 27-29 in Minneapolis.
She competed in the Paralympic Games and Invictus Games twice since she began swimming and has no plans to stop swimming — yet.
“I will always swim in some capacity,” she said. “I think as long as I can bring value to Team USA, I'll continue to swim in a competitive sense. It's a lifelong sport. As far as how long I'll be competitive, I don't know that anyone knows that answer. So I’ll just enjoy it as long as I can.”
Marks won two gold medals and recently set two additional American records at the Citi Para Swimming World Series in Indianapolis on April 15, clocking 5:19.62 in the 400-meter freestyle and winning the 50 multi-class freestyle.
Marks, a 16-year Army veteran, has also served as a spokesperson for the Army and female Soldiers at various public events including the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Exposition and Meeting in Washington D.C.
From introvert to leader
Marks received the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly [ESPY] awards among elite sports company that included LeBron James and Aaron Rodgers. And she has competed at the highest levels of Paralympic swimming.
Yet on a March morning at the World Class Athlete headquarters at Fort Carson, Colorado, the Soldier walks casually in her Army combat uniform to greet a Soldier film crew after a recorded interview.
“I just want to thank everyone for coming,” the sergeant first class says as she smiles and shakes hands with each Soldier as they collect their camera equipment.
She lets the crew know that she had to end her morning training session at the Paralympic Training Center early and will no longer be able to take part in a scheduled photoshoot.
She attributes her empathy for others to her father, a Vietnam and Marine Corps veteran who she said struggled after being wounded in the conflict.
“He had a very hard time when he came home from Vietnam,” she said. “But it never changed how he treated people. He always had time for people. He always made space for them.
“And he's just such an empathetic and kind person that watching him persevere with so little support made me feel very encouraged.”
“Ellie” as friends and family call her, takes her father’s dog tags with her to swim meets to this day.
As a teen, Marks attended the Arizona Project ChalleNGe, a high school east of Phoenix, founded to care and nurture at-risk youth. Instructors created a boot camp-like environment in the now-closed school giving students military-style discipline while creating opportunities to earn a GED or high school diploma. “I really fell in love with the structure, and they helped me reset my life and find a passion for serving my community,” Marks said.
At AZPC, Marks met military mentors who encouraged her to enlist. Marks graduated at 16 and joined the Army at 17.
Marks considers herself shy and an introvert. She finds the idea of being a role model daunting.
Yet she said she has coached other adaptive athletes from the U.S. and partner nations at Invictus.
“I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone,” said Marks, who was inducted into the Army Women’s Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 2017.
She calls injured, ill, sick or wounded Soldiers her military family. As WCAP’s first female Paralympian, she continues to advocate for Paralympic athletes and all Soldiers to assure they have a place in the Army.
Outside of WCAP, Marks is a vocal supporter and champion for the non-profit Fisher House Foundation and its work in the community. Every Friday, Marks volunteers time helping Soldiers at Fort Carson’s Soldier Recovery Unit recover in the pool.
“She's not about awards, or accolades, or individual achievement,” said her husband and coach Mason Heibel. “I think the biggest reward for her is seeing somebody find themselves in the pool.”
Athlete by chance
Marks said she has learned to swim three times.
Her athletic journey began as therapy. She considers the pool her sanctuary; an area where she could escape her ailments. She originally trained to remain fit for duty and learned to swim and pace herself during those sessions. She quickly began to excel at the sport, eventually earning an invite to compete in the Invictus and World Military Games.
“I found sport through injury,” she said. “And it was my place of peace. It was my place where I got to reset and focus on trying to remain fit for duty in a more controlled environment.”
When Marks traveled to London for the inaugural Invictus Games, she required emergency medical treatment. She nearly lost her life but the efforts of the doctors and nurses at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge saved her.
Following her recovery, Marks had to train differently and account for her now-limited vision and breathing.
“I had a harder time with oxygen saturation,” she said. “I was essentially in a whole new body … When I first got in the pool, it was a bit scary.”
The illness reduced her vision, and she now uses visual aids while swimming.
Marks returned to Invictus to compete at the 2016 games in Orlando, Florida, where she won four gold medals.
Her comeback and achievements impressed the competition’s founder, Prince Harry, who personally congratulated Marks. She asked Harry to give one of her gold medals to the doctors and nurses at Papworth for saving her life.
At the Rio Paralympics in 2016, Marks took the gold in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, setting a new world record and also won bronze in the women’s 4x100 medley relay.
The final time she learned to swim followed her leg amputation. Marks said competing for seven years without feeling in her left leg helped ease this transition.
Marks understands the embodiment of the team effort to help her continually reach pinnacles in her sport, similar to the team environment in her role as a 68W combat medic. Marks continues to maintain her certifications as a combat medic, while also competing as a professional athlete.
“I’m proud to be a part of the 68-whiskey family,” she said. “I think combat medics are a special breed; a very colorful group of people. And they have been some of my greatest supporters along my career.”
Marks credited fellow combat medics with helping her get through her difficult recovery process following previous combat-related injuries. She spent time in recovery in a German hospital and at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, the same installation where combat medics train.
As Marks climbed the ranks of elite Paralympic swimming, Sgt. 1st Class Rob Brown, a WCAP track and field athlete, helped her cope with previous ailments and remain focused.
Marks married her husband Heibel, a former Soldier and explosive ordnance disposal officer, in 2018 after the couple met shortly before the 2016 Invictus Games.
She said Heibel helped her through her most difficult moments, as a Soldier and athlete.
“He's an incredibly patient and supportive man,” Marks said of Heibel. “It's very hard to be with someone who has two full time careers that are so demanding. He loves it. He’s become a part of it.”
Marks said that she still suffers from traumatic brain injuries, and when she wakes up each morning, she has to stop and gather her thoughts.
But then, when she struggles, she always has the pool at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center’s campus in central Colorado Springs.
“I think she enjoys just being able to challenge herself and be in absolute control of that aspect and time training in the pool,” Heibel said. “Things are much more simple than the world around.”
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