PARALYMPICS GOLD MEDALIST LONG
IS NAMED HONORARY MARSHAL
July 1, 2005

DESC swimmer will help usher in procession

by Marge Neal

This time last year, Middle River resident Jessica Long was busy training for the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

The Dundalk-Eastfield Swim Club member was named to the American contingent to the international event last April. To ready herself for that level of competition, the 12-year-old started an intensive workout regimen prescribed by USA Swimming.

She returned home from Greece the tired but proud owner of three gold medals.

To honor her performance in Greece, as well as her terrific representation of Dundalk, Jessica has been named an honorary grand marshal of Dundalk's Independence Day parade.

"I'm very honored and I think it'll be a lot of fun," Jessica said Monday. "I like Dundalk a lot."

The young swimmer who is missing the lower portions of both legs said she realizes how seriously Dundalk takes its 4th of July celebration, which makes the honor all the more humbling.

Her father Steve said on Monday that while Jessica appreciates the attention she has garnered since her performance in Greece, she doesn't understand it.

"She doesn't understand what the big deal is about what she's done," he said.

Though she may not be able to appreciate her own accomplishment, it's quite a big deal to set national and world records in any sport less than a year into a career.

But that's exactly what Jessica did.

She started swimming with the Dundalk-Eastfield Rec Council program in September 2002 and by June 2003 owned five national records for swimmers with disabilities.

She set those records in her first national competition, which happened to be the national championship for swimmers with disabilities, held in Minnesota in June 2003.

After realizing she could compete successfully at the national level, she set her sights on qualifying for the International Paralympic Games in China in 2008.

But she underestimated herself.

She competed in the U.S. Disability Swimming Championships in Minneapolis in April 2004, which also served as the qualifying meet for the Paralympics in Greece.

She won five gold medals and set two American records at the meet, earning a spot on the team that went to Athens last September.

She qualified in the 50-, 100- and 400-meter free-style, and also swam a leg in the 4x100-meter wom-en's freestyle relay.

She swam the third leg of the race and gave her team a lead that held up to take the gold medal. She also took gold in the 100- and 400-meter freestyle races.

Jessica competed in a meet Sunday at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and was pleased with her results.

She has tackled a new event - the 400-meter individual medley - and in her first race in that event she posted a time that would have lowered the world record by 21 seconds.

"But it doesn't count because it wasn't a sanctioned meet," she said.

Meets have to be sanctioned by the International Paralympics Committee for times to count as records.

But the natural talent isn't worried.

She knows the next time she jumps into the pool in an approved meet, another world record is coming home with her.

But for now, she's practicing something much more important: smiling and waving.

Copyright © 2005 Dundalk Eagle