Jessica Long has spent more time in a pool at age 20 than most will in their entire lifetime. She has the heart and passion many people only read about and never experience. Jessica is a 7x Paralympic Gold Medalist and en route to adding more gold to her basket in London. Yesterday, Jessica added two more accolades to her competitive swimming resume at the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials.
Jessica broke not one but two world records and that’s just the first day at the Bismark Aquatic Center. Wondering just how bad ass she is? The records she broke were previously held by who else? Her. She beat the world and American record set in the S8 400 free. Jessica then crushed her own record in the SB7 100 breast by just over 2 seconds.
She was born with fibular hemimelia, which in lamest terms means no fibula. In other words, picture your food connected to your knee and that’s what Jessica was faced with from day one. She was amputated at 18 months old but that didn’t stop her from accomplishing anything she put her mind to. Yesterday she reminded the world of that.
Jessica tweeted (@jessicaLong) “400 free! 🙂 here I go!” and two hours later shared, “World record! So happy!” She showed one of the reasons she’s a champion with a tweet prior to that when she shared, “Trials pool! Great job to everyone who swam this morning. Go USA!”
Long will be headed to her third games as part of the U.S. Paralympic team. She was the youngest member in 2004, at age 12, and won three gold medals. She returned to the Beijing Olympics (remember at just 16 years old) and won four golds. Oh ya and a silver and bronze along with it.
When I asked Jessica how this year’s games felt compared to her last she told me she was was going to have more fun and not put so much pressure on herself. She’s clearly having fun while doing what she loves.
Long has five more events before the Trials conclude on Saturday. The prelims begin at 9am and finals are at 5pm. The event is free to the public.
Jessica is A HARDBODY, inside and out. Learn more about the paralympics and follow Jessica on twitter has she continues to swim her heart out.
Photo by: Isaac Hinds – Liftstudios.com
