ASTON —Kara Damico was in third grade when she was told sports couldn’t be for her.
The advice came from doctors who diagnosed her with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, a rare class of bone and joint disorders caused by weaknesses in the body’s connective tissues. It explained the constant pain she was in stemming from physical activity, which still persists as a senior at Sun Valley, and the joint hypermobility that made her prone to dislocations that she describes with unnerving calm.
For a competitive kid who threw herself into a variety of sports, falling hard for softball in particular, it was devastating news – so much so that she defied doctors to get back on the diamond two years later. Even that required compromise, Damico parked at first base as a way to limit her throwing, confined to half swings in the batter’s box so as not to risk her shoulder popping out.
It would take until age 12 for Damico to find her last resort – swimming. It was the only thing forgiving enough on her aberrant connective tissue. Even then, it was hardly an instant epiphany.
“I hated it at first,” Damico said. “It took me that whole summer to start liking it. I only went for my friends.”
Her embrace delayed, the ascent has been rapid, mobilizing a competitiveness that perseveres through her physical challenges. It has led her to a second PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships this week, where she’ll compete in the Class 2A competition, her final high school meet before swimming at Kutztown University.
As far as she’s come, it hasn’t been smooth sailing. Ehlers-Danlos is a suite of more than a dozen genetic disorders that present a variety of subvariants, depending on which type of connective tissue is affected. It can manifest in joint issues as well as fragile or overly stretchy skin, issues with bleeding or wound healing and vascular complications. It’s prevalence is between one in 2,500 to 5,000 births in the U.S., and the numbers of variants make each individual subtype qualify as a rare disease.
Damico’s symptoms have involved weakened ligaments and tendons, leading to a tendency to dislocate joints, her shoulders and knees especially, at unusually low force loads. The syndromes lead to chronic pain. She pushed through that when she was young, playing soccer, basketball, cross country and track. Softball was the sport she hung onto the longest when doctors put a name to her health issues in third grade. It wasn’t until age 12 that she found swimming and started to be able to stomach its individual isolation. But as has become a trend, she made the best of a tough situation.
Swimming isn’t a utopia for someone with Ehler-Danlos. The kicking motion of breaststroke exerts too much force on easily dislocated knees. When Damico started, the overarm motion of butterfly readily popped out her shoulders, though more muscle tone as she’s grown has eased that. And the torsion on the shoulder from the underarm catch of backstroke pretty much took that off the table.
So Damico started in sprint freestyle, and she’s found a way to flourish.
“It was a struggle in the beginning; (butterfly) is my best event now, but freshman year, I couldn’t swim fly,” she said. “Every time I would move my arms in that way, my shoulders would dislocate. Swimming builds muscles in your whole body, and as I got stronger and gained more muscle, I started dislocating less.”
In a short time, she’s come a long way. She started at Brookhaven Swim Club in the summers, working her way to Sun Valley’s varsity as a freshman. Two years ago, she started club swimming at Ridley YMCA, when the results accelerated.
Last year, she made states in the 50 free, qualifying 15th out of prelims. Her second swim in the B final wasn’t what she wanted, going nearly seven-tenths slower to finish 16th overall.
This year, Damico is seeded seventh in the 50 free (24.25 at districts) and 12th in the 100 fly (59.21), which she’ll swim back-to-back on Friday. She stands a great shot at second swims and maybe a medal. Mostly, she hopes to reap the benefits of being much more confident this year than last at states.
“Last year, I think I was really nervous,” she said. “It kind of messed it up for me, because when you go up on the block nervous, it doesn’t make you do your best. So this year, I’m probably not going to be nervous. I wasn’t at districts this year.”
Last year’s states berth surprised her. But this year, it’s what she’s been aiming for all along. She upped her training all summer with two-a-days and has done more on the club circuit, getting to YMCA Nationals for the first time last year.
This states trips adds excitement to Damico’s hard-won appreciation. She’s gotten to know plenty of kids living with Ehler-Danlos, of her type and others. Many haven’t found something that they can embrace the way she has swimming. It isn’t always rosy, but she’s much happier working through the challenges than if she hadn’t found a refuge in the pool.
“I never thought I would be able to do another sport,” she said. “If I wasn’t good at swimming, I might not have stuck with it and then I wouldn’t have had any sport to do.”
