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The Great Jessica Long There are athletes in sports today that are more than just an athlete. Jessica Long is one of them. If you don’t know who Jessica Long is, well let me tell you. She is a 15 year old swimmer that is a bilateral below-the-knee amputee. When it comes to swimming, great names come to mind like Michael Phelps, Amanda Beard, Janet Evans, and Katie Hoff.. Now you can add one other name to those great swimmers by the name of Jessica Long. Jessica was born in Irkutsk, Russia, but was adopted by an American couple from Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 13 months. At birth, she was born with lower leg anomalies. Because of this, her legs were amputated at the knees at 18 months old.. She wanted to be normal so she did what she wanted. She played sports, was a cheerleader, and enjoyed horseback riding. But her first love was gymnastics. She had prosthetic legs to perform as a gymnast, but her parents were concerned for Jessica because they feared that Jessica would damage her knees. So she moved to swimming. In an interview, Jessica stated that it was hard for her at first to move in the water, she would find herself to be exhausted by the end of the day. But she loved it. But with practice and hard work, Jessica became a great swimmer. Not having the full use of her legs, as most swimmers do, she has to work twice as hard to achieve her desired goals. That hard work paid off. Jessica came on to the international scene in 2004, and, at the ripe old age of 12, the youngest on her team, she shocked the world by winning three gold medals in swimming. To date, she has won nine gold medals and has set five world records in the S8 classification: 100m freestyle (1:07.03), 400m freestyle (4:53.14), 100m butterfly (1:13.25), 200m Individual Medley (2:43.60) and the 34-point 4x100m freestyle relay. She became the first Paralympic athlete to win the AAU James E. Sullivan Award, presented to the U.S’s best amateur athlete. I am talking about a great woman that all of America can honor with her courage and strength. Long was also awarded the U.S. Olympic Committee's 2006 Paralympian of the Year and Swimming World Magazine's 2006 Disabled Swimmer of the Year. Just to give you an idea how good this girl is as a swimmer, the World record for 100m freestyle is 53.30 set by Britta Steffen. Now imagine swimming it without legs. To get a 1:07:03 is amazing. And she did it at 12 years old. Again, the 400m freestyle record is 4:02:13 set by Laure Manaudou. Jessica did it in 4:53.14 without legs, and was 12 when she did it. If you love to swim, the next time you go to the pool, swim without using your legs and see how well you do it. Jessica has mastered not all freestyle, but the butterfly, and the breaststroke. Sometimes you run into an athlete that is more than just an athlete. Sometimes you find someone that is a gift from God. That is Jessica Long.
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This article was originally published at rootzoo.com, a sports social network where sports fans come together and talk sports
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