LARAMIE – Jack O'Neil made a courageous life decision as a child. One that would be agonizing for an adult to make.
 
After struggling with congenital deformities in his left leg – O'Neil's knee was stuck at an awkward angle, and he was also born with a club foot with his toes pointing down – he decided to put an end to the painful surgeries, which proved to be futile in giving him flexibility and movement on the shorter, under-developed limb.
 
O'Neil told his parents, Jon and Heidi, that he wanted to have his leg amputated below the knee so he could pursue his athletic dreams.
 
He was 9 years old at the time.
 
"I had this surgery where they went in, and they broke my tibia and my fibula. Then they put a halo on it, and we would pull the bones apart every day," O'Neil said. "I had that done when I was like 6. So, when I was 9 years old, I was like, 'There's no way I'm doing that again.'"
 
O'Neil recalls watching the London Paralympics on television with wide eyes as amputee athletes flew around the track using state-of-the-art prosthetic running blades.
 
"For 9-year-old me that was a pretty easy pitch. You can't run now, but if you amputate your leg you can run," O'Neil said. "I give my parents a ton of credit because how do you handle that as a parent? Nobody prepares you for that. My parents took the route of this is your life and if that is what you want to do, we will support you every single step of the way.
 
"That's exactly what they did and thank God they did because it has been awesome for me. I cannot say it was the easiest road for them to go down, especially when there were a lot of doctors who wouldn't even do the amputation because they didn't think it was the right thing."
 
Two weeks after the amputation, he was back in the pool, his happy place. He ran a triathlon that year, which led to finding a prosthetist who improved the fit of his prosthetic.
 
In 2021, O'Neil joined the Wyoming men's swimming & diving program. Now the junior from Colorado Springs will attempt to qualify for the Paris Summer Paralympic Games.
 
O'Neil will compete in the 50 and 100 freestyle, as well as the 100 backstroke, this week in Minneapolis. Coverage of the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials begins at 8 a.m. Thursday streaming on Peacock.
 
"It would be awesome," UW head coach Dave Denniston says while holding back tears when asked what it would be like to see O'Neil make the team. "I've talked to his parents a lot, I've known his family for 10-plus years, and if there's a kid out there that has earned it, it's Jack.
 
"He has been through hard times, too. He puts on the smile and he's inspiring, but he has been through some really hard stuff to get where he's at. If there's an athlete out there that's earned this opportunity to represent the U.S. in Paris, there's a lot of them out there, but Jack for me is obviously at the top of that hill. I want that for him because I know it has been his goal since he was an 11-year-old kid."
 
O'Neil was mentored by Melissa Stockwell, who became an inspirational Paralympic triathlete after being the first female soldier to lose a limb in the Iraqi War. Denniston, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was teammates with Stockwell at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and worked with a young O'Neil at the Olympic Training Center.
 
After becoming the first athlete with a disability to qualify for the Colorado State Championships under able-bodied time standards, O'Neil was determined to continue his decorated career at the collegiate level.
 
"College recruiting for me was very interesting," said O'Neil, who competed for a club team because his high school didn't have a swim team. "Obviously, I have a much different story than people with two legs. They have the times, and coaches find them and reach out to them. My recruiting was a lot of what schools do I want to go to, do they have a swim team, and I'm going to reach out to the coach.
 
"I had an array of answers. Some were like there's absolutely no room for you on this team, not interested. I had some where it was like, maybe we could see about it, but you definitely won't travel and maybe you could practice. Then I had Dave who was like, absolutely, come up for a visit whenever you can."
 
When Denniston offered O'Neil an opportunity to swim for him at UW, the immediate answer was yes … with one caveat.
 
"I looked at him and said: 'If we're going to do this, I don't want to be any different on your team. I just want to be another guy. I want to be treated the exact same way, I want to attend every single practice, I want to do the exact same sets and I want to be yelled at. I don't want to be babied through this,'" O'Neil said. "He just kind of looked at me and said, 'I can give you that.' That's exactly what he's done."
 
Denniston understands what drives O'Neil.
 
"We have both been engulfed in the disabled community, the adaptive sport community our whole lives. In that world, I'm not here to be an inspiration, I'm not here to bring you to tears, I'm here because I love doing this and I want to do it to the best of my ability," Denniston said. "It's kind of one of those things where we recognize where the inspiration is authentic and genuine. It's also something we're not going to fabricate and pander to as much. Let's just be the best athlete we can be just like the rest of the team.
 
"For him I think that was refreshing where I don't expect him to inspire the team every day. Just come and do your best. And he has."
 
O'Neil was unanimously selected team captain for the 2023-24 season. He was the first member of the men's team to learn of the deaths of three beloved members of the program – Charlie Clark, Carson Muir and Luke Slabber – on Feb. 22 and gathered the squad to break the tragic news.
 
"Telling 22 of my best friends that their friends passed away in a car accident was not something I ever planned on doing in my life and something I hope I never have to do again," O'Neil said. "We went to conference and guys swam amazing still, which is incredible. We had guys doing things they had never done before. It speaks to how tight of a team we are.
 
"Every single person that got out of the pool, it was tears when you got to the sidelines because it was so emotionally overwhelming to be in that moment and to know they were looking down on us swimming."
 
O'Neil, who competed in the U.S. Paralympic Team Trial in 2021 and at the Parapan American Games last year in Santiago, Chile, is most proud of being able to go stroke for stroke with talented able-bodied rivals at the Division I level.
 
"I love going to meets and trying to qualify for the Paralympics and traveling across the world and everything," O'Neil said. "I wouldn't trade any of those meets for a dual against Colorado Mesa or a dual meet against Air Force. The reason I swim is because of college swimming. I love representing the university, I love showing up to practice every morning and knowing we're going to get our ass handed to us today. I love keeping people in check. You can ask my teammates, I'm not afraid to call anybody out at 6 in the morning. This is why I swim because of the University of Wyoming."
 
Even though O'Neil bleeds brown and gold, the chance to wear the red, white and blue at the Paralympics was the dream when he made the life-altering decision at the age of 9.
 
"I haven't even thought about it yet, honestly, because I don't want to get too invested in it," O'Neil said. "I know how I operate is I train, do what I do, show up and ride with whatever happens. To make this would be incredible. There are so many people I can attribute this success to and that's why I really want to do it. Yeah, I would love to go to Paris and represent the U.S., but I also feel like so many people have invested themselves into me that it would be so cool for so many people if I qualify."
 
If you are interested in learning more about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) or would like to support our student-athletes, please visit 1wyo.org. 1WYO was created out of Wyoming's culture of neighbor helping neighbor. The mission is to promote and strengthen local charitable organizations and develop Wyoming student athletes. 
 
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