DETROIT (WWJ) -- AnQuniece Wheeler has been working towards this moment for nine years.
At the age of 9, a young deaf girl from Detroit began swimming. Everyone told her she couldn't do it, but she did it anyway.
"When I had the opportunity and I proved my mama wrong that they said I could swim, I started swimming. And I kept swimming. And I’m still swimming. And I just keep swimming," Wheeler told WWJ's Stephanie Davis.
On Thursday Wheeler was honored by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan for what Wheeler calls her own greatest accomplishment -- she has earned a spot on Team USA and will be competing at the World Deaf Swim Championship in Brazil this August. She began swimming for the Detroit Parks & Recreation Department swim team at the Detroit Adams-Butzel Recreation Center, and she was back where it all started on Thursday, helping prepare prospective lifeguards at the center.
In her nine years of swimming, Wheeler has gone through a lot of adversity, but she's also had loads of success, including winning top honors in the Detroit Public School League as a freshman at Martin Luther King High School. Though she was unable to swim at the state championship due to a broken leg, Wheeler says she was the first girl from a Detroit public school to qualify for states in two decades.
Wheeler swam one season at Chowan University in North Carolina and will begin this fall at Gallaudet University, an NCAA Division III school for hearing impaired students in Washington, D.C.
Since 1935, USADF has allowed deaf athletes to compete in international Olympic Games adapted to ensure barrier-free participation. During the summer, Wheeler continues her involvement with Parks & Recreation by working as a lifeguard.
"There is so much talent and perseverance in the young people of Detroit and there is no better example than AnQuniece," Deputy Parks & Recreation Department Director, JJ Velez said in a press release. "We are so proud that she is a product of the city’s recreation department swim program and that she is the kind of compassionate person who making it a point to give back to the program that she came out of. She is an inspiration to all of us."
Wheeler is asking for the public's help in helping fulfill her dream. She's hoping to raise $5,000 to help with travel expenses to get to Brazil. Donations can be made on her mightycause.com page