Golden Girl

The young golden girl who was brought from Russia with love
September 27, 2004

The remarkable successes of Jessica Long

by Matthew Pryor

SHE was found in an old, grey, communist orphanage in Siberia, the babies tied three to a cot, the wind howling through broken windows. Now, 11 years later, she is the star of the Athens Paralympics.

Jessica Long completed her hat-trick of gold medals for the United States on Friday by demolishing the field in the S8 women’s 400 metres freestyle swimming final, winning by 15 seconds in 5min 7.88sec. She is 12 years old. She is a double leg amputee and to see her strutting back round the side of the pool on her knees, her prosthetic legs in her hands, makes one feel that anything is possible.

In a Games full of inspirational stories, bursting with goodwill and human spirit, where triumph over adversity almost becomes a cliché, Long has shone, though because of the incomplete nature of Paralympic records it is not possible to say definitively that she is the youngest athlete to win three golds. “It’s been awesome, so amazing,” she said. “I knew I was representing my country, but then to get on the podium . . . that’s my flag, that’s my anthem.”

Long is being cheered on in Athens by almost her entire family. Beth and Steve, her parents, Amanda, 21, Joshua, 14, who was adopted from the same orphanage, Hannah, 8, and Grace, 5, as well as two grandmothers and one grandfather, and her prosthetist. Steven, her 19-year-old brother, could not afford the trip with his wife.

Long is from Baltimore, Maryland, but she was born in Irkutsk. Her father went to collect her after they had heard about her at an adoption class. “She was in one of the caretaker’s arms when I arrived,” he said. “Her hair was real short but she was so pretty. The orphanage was very dreary, the walls were covered in something like tar roof tiles and it was really cold — some of the windows were missing and broken.

“The toilets didn’t flush, they had hoses in them. Some of the lights were burnt out. They put the children on pots and tied them to the inside of the crib. They had too many children — there must have been 200 kids there. There were women caretakers and they seemed caring, but they were really overworked.

“Jessica had lower-leg deformities. She was born without her fibula, she didn’t really have any ankle structure and she was missing most of the bones in her feet. At 18 months she had an amputation and was fitted with her legs. That was when she first learnt to walk, within a few weeks. I think it was easier she had never walked any other way.”

Both parents knew the responsibility they were taking on. “Joshua had a cleft lip and palate, so they both needed some help,” Beth said. “Because we had two children, we wanted to adopt children that really needed to be adopted.” Contrary to some reports, Beth and Steve do not believe that Jessica and Joshua’s natural parents died as a result of injuries sustained in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but that they were left by single mothers who could not look after them.

Two years after she started swimming competitively and six months after it looked as though she might not make the US team, Long also won the S8 100 metres freestyle and was part of the successful 4 x 100 metres relay team in Athens. The sprints are harder because she has to drop rather than jump into the water, but otherwise she is very able on her knees.

“It seems like it would be uncomfortable, but she never shows any sign of it,” Beth said. “She’ll just jump down from chairs on to her knees. We tell her not to, but she doesn’t like to be told she can’t do things.” She now has three more golden reasons to wear her favourite T-shirt, which reads: “I’m A Girl, I’m An Athlete, Swimming Is My Sport, Prepare To Be Humiliated.”