Jessica Long - Swimming
©Photo: US Paralympics

Name:  JESSICA LONG
Country:  USA
Sport:  SWIMMING

By the age of 14, Jessica Long has already accomplished what many swimmers would hope to do in a career. From the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships, she set the global standard in the 100m free (1:07.03 min), 400m free (4:53.14 min), 100m fly (1:13.25 min) and 200m Individual Medley (2:43.60 min) as well as swimming on the USA’s 400m free relay world-record team (34-point). In total, Long won nine gold medals at the event (class S8).

Long was born in Siberia and adopted from a Russian orphanage at the age of 13 months. Because of lower leg anomalies, her legs were amputated when she was 18 months old. She learned to walk with prostheses and has been unstoppable ever since. Long has been involved in many sports, including Gymnastics, Cheerleading, Ice Skating, Cycling and, of course, Swimming. She started swimming in her grandparent’s pool before joining her first competitive team in 2002. Long burst onto the international stage at the ATHENS 2004 Paralympic Games, where she won three gold medals. Only 12 years old at that time, Long was the youngest athlete on the US Paralympic Team.

In 2003, Long was selected as Maryland Swimming’s ‘Female Swimmer with a Disability of the Year’ and in January 2006, she awarded US Olympic Committee Female Athlete of the Month. Due to her excellent results at this year’s IPC Swimming World Championships, the Swimming World Magazine named her ‘Female Disabled Swimmer of the Year’.

Career Highlights:

• 2006: Five world records at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships in Durban, South Africa.
• 2006: Two world records at the Belgian Open in Antwerp, Belgium.
• 2006: Two world records - Blaze Sports Georgia Open, Atlanta, USA.
• 2005: Five gold medals, one bronze medal and two world records at the 2005 US Paralympics Open Swimming Championships in Minneapolis, USA.
• 2004: Three gold medals at the ATHENS 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece