Sports

Middle River's Long is a Golden Girl at Paralympic Swimming World Championships

Jessica Long, an eight-time medal winner at the London Paralympic Games last summer, is continuing her winning ways at the World Swim Championships in Montreal.

Middle River swimmer Jessica Long is off to a good start at the International Paralympic Committee's Swimming World Championships in Montreal.

Long started the seven-day meet that began Aug. 12 with a victory Tuesday in the 200-meter individual medley (SM8 disability category) with a time of 2 minutes, 37.11 seconds. 

She finished nearly four seconds ahead of silver medalist Stephanie Slater of Great Britain (2:40.73) and more than eight seconds in front of bronze medalist Olesya Vladykina of Russia (2:45.47).

Tuesday night, she posted a picture of her and her coach, Dave Denniston, with her gold medal prominently displayed.

"Gold in the 200 IM!" she posted on her Facebook page.

"I would have liked to have gone faster," Long said in a statement from U.S. Paralympics. "I felt like it was a little bit of struggle the second half of the race. I took it out too fast and didn't swim it as well as I should have, which did cost me time-wise. So I feel like I got over that hump and now I can focus on the rest of my races."

Long came back on Wednesday to claim her second gold medal of the meet with a win in the women's 400m freestyle S8 final, with a time of 4:43.76.

She clobbered the competition, finishing almost 21 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Maddison Elliott of Australia (5:04.55) and nearly 27 seconds ahead of bronze medal winner Amalie Vinther of Denmark (5:10.66).

"It's a year after London, and my goal is to just go out there, swim well and have fun," Long said in a statement.

"USA's superstar Jessica Long … looks unstoppable," IPC officials said in a statement wrapping up Day 3 meet results.

Long is scheduled to compete in the 100m S8 butterfly and the 100m S8 freestyle races. She also usually competes in at least one relay race.

The meet ends Sunday.

Long is the daughter of Steve and Beth Long of Middle River. As a member of the U.S. Paralympic Swim team, Jessica Long lives and trains at the U.S. Olympic Committee Training Center in Colorado Springs.

She began her competitive swim career with the now-defunct Dundalk-Eastfield Swim Club.


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