Swimming Team USA

Swimming

The memebers of Team USA for Swimming

Swimming for men and women has been a part of the Paralympic program since the first Games in 1960 in Rome, Italy. Today, the races are highly competitive and among the largest and most popular events in the Paralympic Games. Paralympic swimming competitions occur in 50-meter pools and, while competing, no prostheses or assistive devices may be worn.Paralympic swimming competition is open to male and female athletes with physical disabilities such as dwarfism, amputation/limb loss, blindness/visual impairment, spinal cord injury/wheelchair-users, cerebral palsy/brain injury/stroke, cognitive impairment and Les autres.

Greatest Paralympic Swimmer

Jessica Long is the greatest Paralympic Swimmer with 23 medals in the last 16 years. She won her first one in athens at the age of 12. She has 14 world records in 100 free, 100 backstroke and many others. Long grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, but is originally from Siberia. When she was only 13 months old, she was adopted from a Russian orphanage. Born with fibular hemimelia, she didn’t have fibulas, ankles, heels and most of the other bones in her feet. At 18 months old, her legs were amputated below the knee

Jessica Long in Rio