These events always sneak in under the radar so I take it as my responsibility to let you know the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships kicked off yesterday in Glasgow, Scotland.
Baltimore County’s own Jessica Long wasted no time in making her mark on the tournament, claiming a gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly (S8 classification). The swimmer's first gold of this meet is Long’s 24th world championships medal and her 20th gold.
For those unfamiliar with Long, she was born in Russia and reared in Middle River after being adopted from a Russian orphanage. She was born with malformed lower legs and feet. After coming to America, it was determined that Jessica’s future would be best served by amputating the lower portions of her legs so she could be fitted with prosthetic limbs.
She’s been competing at the international level of disability swimming since she was 12. She won three gold medals as an unknown entity at the Paralympic Games in Greece in 2004 and is now almost the senior stateswoman of the U.S. Paralympic swim team.
And along the way, Baltimore County has become a hotbed of disabled swimming, with Brad Snyder (who was blinded while serving with the military in Afghanistan) and Rebecca Myers building their own reputations as swimmers to be reckoned with. McDonogh High School graduate Ian Silverman was also an accomplished swimmer in the program until the International Paralympic Committee recently classified him out of the disabled swim categories. Silverman suffers from a “mild form” of cerebral palsy that affects his legs. The IPC regularly checks on the classifications of its athletes, according to an article in Swimming Magazine, and told Silverman in March that the governing body no longer considered him disabled, according to its standards.
On Monday, Long was just one of three Americans to stand atop the medal stand. Cortney Jordan claimed the first U.S. medal when she finished first in the 100-meter freestyle (S7 classification). She finished ahead of Russia’s Ani Palian and Great Britain’s Susannah Rodgers to win her fifth world title, according to an article on the USOC website.
Jessica Long (center) claimed her first gold medal of the IPC
Swimming World Championships in Glasgow on Monday when
she won the 100-meter butterfly. Screen shot posted on
Long's Facebook page.
Snyder won his first world title when he finished first in the 100-meter freestyle (S11). His time of 56.78 seconds was just 11-hundredths of a second off the world record set in 1968 by U.S. swimmer John Morgan, according to the USOC article by Brianna Tammaro.
Also on day 1 of the meet, four Americans, including Rebecca Myers, just missed the medal ceremony by finishing fourth in their races.
Competition continues through July 19. The meet can be viewed via live stream at USParalympics.org. Race results and the complete meet schedule can be found on the IPC website.
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