The Baltimore metropolitan area has long been known for being a hotbed of swimming. More than a few Olympic medalists have trained in Maryland pools — Beth Botsford, Anita Nall, Theresa Andrews and some guy named Michael Phelps come immediately to mind — and the Free State is also known for being home to world class swim coaches (Murray Stephens, Bob Bowman) who have been largely responsible for nurturing and training those athletes.
But there’s another, even more impressive group of swimmers from the Baltimore area competing in pools across the globe, although they tend to get much less attention.
The United States Olympic Committee this week named its Paralympic National Team. Of 14 swimmers named to the A Team, four are from the Baltimore area: Jessica Long, Rebecca Meyers, Ian Silverman and Brad Snyder.
If you do the math, 28 percent of the team is from Baltimore. Impressive, to say the least.
I’ve been following Jessica Long since she was 11, when she was a member of the Dundalk-Eastfield Swim Club, which called the CCBC-Dundalk campus pool home. As a reporter for the Dundalk Eagle, I got a tip about this young athlete from Bruce Mills, who was at the time the president of the Dundalk-Eastfield Recreation Council. I made arrangements to meet her at a Saturday morning club practice and I became one of her earliest and most enthusiastic fans.
Jessica, who is a double, below-the-knee amputee, never beat any of her able-bodied teammates while swimming for the DESC. Her main competitor was the race clock, and she consistently lowered her race times while honing her technique and learning different strokes.
It didn’t take long for the young swimmer to come to the attention of Paralympic swimming organizers. As a 12-year-old, she was named to the U.S Paralympic swim team that competed in the Paralympics in Athens, Greece, in 2004. She was the only one not surprised when she came home with three gold medals.
Since that debut on the world stage — er, pool — she has collected more medals and world records than she can track and has won just about every major award there is, including the James E. Sullivan Award (presented to the nation’s top amateur athlete), the 2006 Disabled Swimmer of the Year (presented by Swimming World magazine), the 2006 U.S. Olympic Committee Paralympian of the Year Award, the 2011-12 Paralympic Sports Woman of the Year award (named by the USOC) and a couple of ESPY awards.
Winning the Sullivan award puts Jessica in good company. Recent winners have included Michael Phelps, J.J. Riddick, Tim Tebow, Michelle Kwan, Peyton Manning and Dan Jansen. Since its 1930 inception, the award has been given to athletes who were the household names of their day, including tennis player Don Budge, decathlete Bob Mathias, figure skater Dick Button, divers Sammy Lee and Patricia McCormick and runners Rafer Johnson and Wilma Rudolph.
Jessica, who grew up in Middle River, is the most decorated female athlete with 17 Paralympic medals (including 12 golds), according to a statement from the USOC. She has competed in the Paralympics in Athens, Beijing and London, and now has her eye on the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.
Rebecca Meyers, a resident of Timonium, won two medals (one silver and one bronze) at the London Paralympics, and finished fifth in the 50m freestyle. She also holds two world records, according to the Team USA website.
Brad Snyder, who lost his sight to an IED while serving in Afghanistan, won three medals at the London Paralympics. The U.S. Naval Academy graduate competes in six events, including the 100m and 400m freestyle, 100m butterfly and the 200m individual medley.
In London, he won gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle races and silver in the 50m freestyle.
Ian Silverman won a gold medal in the 400m freestyle in London and has an impressive collection of medals from national and world championships, according to the Team USA website. He holds Paralympic world and American records in 15 events.
He was named the 2013 Tricia L. Zorn Disability Swimmer of the Year; received Scholastic All-American recognition for high school swimming for the 2013-14 season; was a member of the All-Maryland team from 2010-2014; and was the Maryland Swimming Swimmer of the Year in 2006 and 2009 through 2013, according to the website.
Paralympians compete in disability classifications that ensure the athletes compete against others with similar disabilities.
While these athletes train as long and hard as their able-bodied counterparts, they mostly perform in obscurity. The Paralympics get just a fraction of the airtime that the Olympics get, though NBC is working to provide more coverage of the Paralympics.
The national swim team competes in many national meets and well as international meets and world championships, and top Paralympians have the opportunity to live and train at USOC training complexes.
To keep an eye on the accomplishments of this stellar group of Baltimore area athletes, check out the Paralympics website.
Jessica Long competes in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke - SB7 Heat on London Games 2012 © • Getty Images
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