FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE
March 4, 2004
 Russian-born Jessica Long refines her technique at the CCBC Dundalk pool. photo by Marge Neal |
MAKING WAVES, PART 1 OF 2: Competition drives girl, 12, to succeed
by Marge Neal
Jessica Long has been swimming competitively with the Dundalk-Eastfield Rec Council swim team for only 18 months, but she already holds five national records.
In the CCBC Dundalk pool, the 12-year-old - she just celebrated the third leap-year anniversary of her real birthday Sunday - cuts through the water with the steely determination of a shark targeting its prey. Her strokes are strong and becoming increasingly more refined, her mind only on the next turn and the finish line, her speed fast and getting faster by the day.
It's only when she climbs out of the pool that something else setting Jessica apart from the crowd becomes apparent.
As she emerges from the water which has become like a second home, her goggled face with the beaming smile is followed by the broad shoulders and lean, muscular body swimmers tend to have.
But when she hoists herself out of the pool and stands on the deck, she's on her knees.
 Jessica was born without fibulas, the long bones between the knee and foot. photo by Marge Neal |
Jessica was born without fibulas, the long bones between the knee and foot. Her legs end about six inches below her knees. Misshapen feet protruding from the small portion of the leg below each knee were amputated so she could be fitted for prosthetic devices that would enable her to walk normally.
"I can do a lot of stuff," she said during a recent swim practice. "I skate and did gymnastics for a while."
Jessica is one of Steve and Beth Long's six children. Their Bird River Road home is a hectic one, with home-schooling on top of all the other day-to-day tasks, errands and commitments of a seven-member family (the couple's oldest son, Steven, is married).
Jessica has accomplished a great deal in her short swimming career. In her first national meet for swimmers with disabilities, held in Minnesota last June, she set five American records in her disability classification, including the 50-yard breaststroke, 100-yard individual medley and three distances in freestyle. She hopes to be a member of the U.S. Paralympic Team for the 2008 games in Beijing, and has qualified for the meet to determine the team that will represent the U.S. in Athens this summer.
But life could have been quite different if she had remained in her native country.
Rough beginning
Jessica, whose birth name was Tatiana, was born in Russia in 1992, shortly after the fall of communism and the subsequent crash of the Russian economy. Like many children with special needs, she was abandoned by her mother and ended up in an orphanage.
Back in Middle River, Steve and Beth Long had two children and were told they would not be able to have others. Rather than spend huge amounts of money on fertility treatments, the Longs decided to adopt.
They were pursuing a Latin American child when they were told about a little girl in Russia who needed surgery.
"We called an agency about her and got a picture of her," Beth Long said Friday. "We took one look at the picture and from then on we knew she was the little girl for us."
Fearing the adoption process of a foreign land could take years, Beth and Steve were pleasantly surprised that it took only two months. They made the most of one trip and adopted two children. Steve set off by himself to Russia in March 1993 to bring 13-month-old Jessica and 3-year-old Joshua home to their new family.
Getting the toddlers home to the U.S. did not go as smoothly as the adoption process itself, Beth recalled with a hearty laugh.
"The clothes I sent over for Josh were for a normal 3-year-old," she said. Upon arriving at the orphanage and meeting the children for the first time, Steve realized that Josh was severely underdeveloped and was the same size as Jessica.
Also, Steve had taken only one stroller with him because he assumed Josh would be able to walk, which was not the case.
But even with the language barrier in Russia, a lot of people helped him with the children until he got them on a plane - which the three flew home during the blizzard of March 1993.
"BWI was closed and for a day, I had no idea where they were," Beth Long said. She assumed they had been diverted to Florida until she found out they were in Canada.
Steve was running out of formula and diapers and got into Baltimore in the nick of time.
Jessica wasn't the only one who needed immediate medical attention upon arriving in the U.S.
Josh was born with a cleft lip and palette and had corrective surgery shortly after settling into his new home.
"He had received no treatment in Russia, so he had a huge, gaping hole in his face," contributing to his malnutrition and lack of physical development, Beth said.
Jessica had her surgery to amputate her misshapen feet when she was 18 months old and, according to her mother, hasn't stopped moving since.
"Doctors put casts over the surgical areas and inserted poles with little feet into the casts," Beth said. Jessica started walking almost immediately and was so active that she didn't need physical therapy.
She was fitted for her first prosthetic legs about three months later and never looked back.
The word "can't" doesn't exist in Jessica's vocabulary. She's extremely competitive and tackles everything she tries head-on.
Everything, it seems, except for her school work.
Beth home-schools Jessica and her other three school-age children, Hannah, Grace and Josh (oldest daughter Amanda is a student at CCBC Dundalk).
Asked what her favorite subject is, Jessica replies "handwriting" and says she usually gets A's and B's for her penmanship.
Beth Long objectively rates Jess as a B-C student and admits that the star swimmer enjoys sports more than she does the classroom.
"But she is very competitive and we think maybe if she went to a traditional school she would do better because of the competition," Beth Long said. "It's something we've talked about. We're taking it year by year."
Jessica is aware that she is driven to better performances when she faces competition.
During swim practices, she always tries to beat the swimmer in the next lane. And she knows she doesn't swim her fastest or her best if she's in the pool alone.
So if somebody sitting in the next desk makes her perform a little better on a math test, why not?
Competition is competition.
Next week: Jessica Long's meteoric rise in the world of competitive swimming.
Copyright © 2004Dundalk Eagle