Part 2

Record breaker, 12, receives no special treatment
March 11, 2004

Jessica Long practiced her backstroke at a recent Dundalk-Eastfield Swim Club practice. photo by Marge Neal

Swimmer preparing for Paralympic trials

by Marge Neal

MAKING WAVES, PART 2 OF 2

On Saturday, an unseasonably warm day tinged with the promise of spring, a visit to the CCBC Dundalk pool was made all the more inspirational by the presence of double-amputee and record-setting swimmer Jessica Long.

The pool attendant hadn't yet turned on the lights when Dundalk-Eastfield Swim Club members and their bleary-eyed parents straggled in around 8:20 a.m.

Jessica strolled in from the locker room with a beach towel wrapped around her waist, sat on a bench, removed her prostheses and made her way to the end of the pool on her knees. The keen competitor was the first one in the water and was well into her third lap of warm-ups before anyone else joined her.

"She's very competitive and hates to lose, that's for sure," longtime DESC coach Stephanie Weisenborn said during the practice.

Double-amputee swimmer Jessica Long (left) has flourished under the tutelage of coaches Stephanie Weisenborn and Andrew Barranco. photo by Marge Neal

Weisenborn, a Dundalk Avenue resident, started volunteering with the swim program 19 years ago when it used the Dundalk Center pool. All three of her children participated, and she has lost track of the number of youngsters who have worn the green and gold swim caps.

But Jessica is the club's first swimmer with a significant disability. And while it's significant that the 12-year-old native of Russia is missing the lower portion of her legs, Weisenborn said, the others kids don't really look at Jess like's she different.

"It's like it's not a disability even to Jess," Weisenborn said. "She doesn't consider herself disabled."

But there are distinct disadvantages to not having her lower legs. When Jessica starts a freestyle race - or any race from atop the blocks - she pushes off from her knees, which puts her in the pool already a body length or so behind the field. She has to get much closer than other swimmers to the wall to start a flip turn, which causes her to lose even more distance.

But even so, "she does very well in regular meets," Weisenborn said. "She knocks off time and that's what we ask. We tell them it's them against the clock."

No special treatment

When Jessica started swimming with the club just 18 months ago, the only stroke she wanted to compete in was the freestyle because she was afraid she would be disqualified in other strokes.

"But her breaststroke really came along and we convinced her she could compete in that as well." Weisenborn said.

The coach said she and assistant coaches Andrew Barranco, Susan Doyle and Christina Weisenborn are learning as they go in working with Jessica's disablility.

For example, the coaches didn't know until a recent meet that Jess could start a race in the water if she preferred.

"From Day 1 here, Jess has not received any special treatment," Weisenborn said. She swims the same distances, practices all the strokes, including backstroke and butterfly, and is usually the first one in the pool and the last one out.

Jessica's competitiveness sometimes gets the best of her. During clock work Saturday, she and two other swimmers were told to perform a certain stroke up and another back for a total of 10 laps.

Falling behind a 15-year-old competitor, Jessica sneaked in a couple of freestyle strokes but was caught by her coach. She came up out of the water with a sheepish grin as Weisenborn told her to stick to the assigned stroke.

"She hates to lose," Weisenborn said with a shrug and a smile.

Five American records

Jess attended a national meet for swimmers with disabilities, held in Minnesota, last June.

In her first such meet, she won two gold medals and a silver in her disability classification, which is based upon range of motion and mobility, according to USA Swimming spokeswoman Tarrah Smith Pollaro.

The meet traditionally attracts about 200 swimmers, said USA Swimming volunteer Bea Hartigan.

Jessica was one of the younger swimmers at the meet, where competitors go head-to-head based on disability rather than age.

"This is not everybody feel good and get a medal just for competing," Pollaro said. "This is real competition."

Swimmers have to post qualifying times at other meets to be eligible for the nationals, and they have to compete with a USA Swimming-affiliated club.

At a Towson meet in January, Jessica obliterated several American records.

She now owns the record in 50-yard freestyle (32.98 seconds); 100-yard freestyle (1 minute, 12.25 seconds); 200-yard freestyle (2:43.77); 100-yard individual medley (1:32.19); and 50-yard breaststroke, (47.9).

In a sport where hundredths of a second separate first through third place, Jessica lowered the 200 free standard by more than 53 seconds and smashed the old 100 IM record by more than a minute. She took more than 31 seconds off the old 50 breaststroke mark.

Jessica's times have qualified her for the meet again this year, when it will double as the U.S. Paralympic swim trials to pick the team that will represent the U.S. in the Paralympic Games this summer in Athens, Greece.

The trip to Minnesota, set for April 22-24, will be a family affair again this year, with father Steve, mother Beth, grandmother Janet Councill, great-grandmother Margaret Pitt and siblings Josh and Hannah going along to support their favorite swimmer.

"It was great last year," Steve Long said. "We sat in the stands and held signs to cheer her on."

The swimmer who was born on Leap Day in 1992 doesn't think her chances are great to make the Paralympic team this year.

"I have improved much just since last year," she said shortly before her once-every-four-years birthday last month. "I think I have a good chance at making the team in four years to go to China."

The devilish grin returned to her face as she added, "When I'm 4."