How Local Swimmer Luke Ferris Overcame Autism to Become an Elite Athlete

There was once a time when McLean native Luke Ferris was scared of the beach, especially the water. “Deathly afraid,” described his father, John.

Now, at age 19, Luke swims so often he practically lives in the water. He’s no longer afraid, and if his non-stop laughter is any indication, he loves being in the water more than maybe anything else in his life.

It should be noted that Luke has autism, which is why he was initially so afraid of the water as a child, and why the story behind his competitive swimming career is so remarkable.

Luke will head to Los Angeles next week to compete in this year’s Special Olympics, which features more than 7,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from more than 25 countries all across the globe competing in one place at the highest level of their respective sports.

He’ll swim the 800-meter freestyle, a distance event in which Luke has historically thrived, as well as in the open-water division, which involves a mile-long swim in Long Beach.

To add context to Luke’s Olympic journey, he’s one of only seven Virginia athletes competing in any sport in this year’s Special Olympics, and one of only two swimmers in the entire United States to post a qualifying time for the open-water swim.

You shouldn’t need any more proof defending Luke’s elite status in the sport than that.

But, of course, the path to this moment, on the eve of the biggest competition of Luke’s life, was never easy.

As previously noted, Luke was not always so fond of the water. His parents had always loved going to the beach, soaking in the sun, going for a swim, and kayaking whenever possible. However, early in Luke’s life, at around the age of 3 when his parents truly began to understand how Luke’s particular form of autism might affect him, they learned that Luke had no interest in being at the beach.

They eased him closer and closer to the water over time, and he eventually grew comfortable enough to begin learning to swim. It took years of work to build a trust between Luke and the water.

“We got him in the water and he started swimming, and I can’t say he took off fast, it’s been years in the making, but over the years we notice when he’s swimming he’s literally laughing in the water,” John said. “So obviously he’s come to enjoy it.”

Luke has never been much of a talker, according to his father, who spoke on his behalf in an interview with Patch. But Luke has no problem communicating his passion for swimming when he’s in the water.

The family continued to raise the bar and challenge him more as a swimmer, just to see how far he could take it, or would even want to take it.

Sometimes Luke never even realized he was being challenged, John explained. He was so connected with swimming and with the water that when his parents or coaches would ask him to swim a little further or for a little longer or a little faster, he’d do so without hesitation. It’s as if it was always possible for Luke and he was just waiting for somebody to ask.

John said the Ferris family got Luke involved in the Special Olympics program when he was about 9 years old, which added a training regiment and proper coaching to the mix. Luke’s involvement in Special Olympics at a young age led him to gain exposure to open-water swimming, a relatively new sport for the organization, through a local swimming group called WaveOne, which swims in the National Harbor and often encourages Special Olympics athletes to join in on the fun.

Luke accepted their invitation, and it didn’t take long for he, his family and the rest of WaveOne to realize he had special talent for the sport.

Fastforward a decade, and Luke is now one of the premier Special Olympics open-water swimmers in the entire world. He’s participated in national competitions in Puerto Rico, Miami and the San Francisco Bay, and he’s even swam across the Potomac River from Jones Bay to the National Harbor. Needless to say, he’s one of the best the sport has to offer, which is why he often follows the biggest competitions from coast to coast.

Luke was invited by Special Olympics to a week-long training program in Indianapolis last fall, and since then he has been training “pretty much every day” for this summer’s Games in Los Angeles, according to John.

“It’s just a huge event. This is like big-time,” John explained with pride, ironically about 10 minutes before hauling Luke to another practice. “The opening ceremonies are in the Coliseum, which is really cool.”

The Coliseum hosted the opening ceremonies for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles as well, so John certainly wasn’t blowing these Games out of proportion.

And John noted that since last year’s training in Indianapolis, Luke understands the stakes of the race and the level of competition he’ll face, even if you’ll never hear him talk about it.

“He knows this trip to LA is bigger than other trips he’s taken,” John said.

Having proven he has the talent to thrive at this summer’s Games, it’s the support Luke receives on a daily basis from his family and the local Northern Virginia community that continues to fuel him. It was support from WaveOne that got him involved in open-water swimming, and added support from the McLean High School swim team, with whom Luke has practiced in the pool for the last year, that has kept him sharp in preparing for his 800-meter swim.

Luke hails from a family of athletes — his sister is currently competing on the McLean Little League All-Star softball team at the Virginia state tournament, where they hope to qualify for the Little League World Series, and his other two sisters are athletes as well — so supporting loved ones in major competitions is nothing new for the Ferris family.

Yet John said he’s feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement he normally doesn’t feel before watching one of his daughters compete. After all, at the Special Olympics, even helping Luke grow comfortable in his open-water wetsuit in time for the race can be a challenge, which then alters what success will mean in Los Angeles.

“It’s things that parents in regular competitions don’t have to worry about like adjusting to a wetsuit,” John said. “We want him to do well, he’s a great kid, so regardless of what place he finishes we just hope he swims his best.”

Luke’s story is not only inspiring, but it’s proof to other families affected by autism that you never know what life may throw at you, and that that principle isn’t always a bad thing.

“The overall point with Luke is when we first started working with autism and such when he was 3 or 4 years old, we just didn’t know what tomorrow brings. (Doctors) said you can’t predict the future, we don’t know what will happen, but just keep on challenging him and see how he does, and that’s what he’s done,” John said. “I don’t want to say he’s exceeded expectations, but I didn’t think at 19 he’d be swimming miles in open water.

“He works hard. He has a different level of competition, but he has his sport and he works as hard as anyone else at it and he can do these things like any other kid even though there are communication issues he has to get over. But he’s done great.”

For more information on this year’s Special Olympics, visit LA2015.org.

Image credit: Special Olympics (via John Ferris)