Super-swimmer Long turning 'anger and abandonment' into Paralympic glory

Paralympic swimming icon Jessica Long is gunning for more glory at the upcoming Paris Games after a traumatic journey from a Siberian orphanage to a phenomenal career in the pool.

Long is one of the faces of American para sports with 29 Paralympic medals since her first Games in 2004 as a 12-year-old, one more than her friend Michael Phelps who is the most decorated Olympian of all time.

The 32-year-old, who was born with fibular hemimelia and had both legs amputated below the knee while still a baby, has two more Paralympics at which to increase her bulging haul of honours as she plans on hanging up her swimming cap after the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

"I obviously want to win gold and do the best that I can. Whatever happens I'm so very grateful and proud of what I've done... I think that it would be amazing to end on home soil," Long said in an interview with AFP organised with swimwear manufacturer Arena.

Long is a legend in her discipline but as she plans on taking part at only two more Paralympics she will not be able to reach the medal record of 55, set by fellow American Trischa Zorn 20 years ago.

That is because, unlike in Zorn's day, swimmers are limited to seven events at the Paralympics, meaning the maximum Long can get to is 43.

"I do wonder what I could have done if I could have swam so many events. Especially when you're little because your body just doesn't hurt," says Long.

"In one Paralympics (Seoul 1988) she (Zorn) won 12 gold medals because there were more opportunities. Bring back the events!"

 'Swim with integrity' 

Long is concerned for the integrity of her sport as she says swimmers are manipulating the classification system for disabled athletes.

Para swimming, like other disabled disciplines, categorises athletes so that they compete with people of similar physical abilities, with review swims used to classify competitors.

But there have been a number of cheating scandals in para sports. Once such example came in 2022 when Indian discus thrower Vinod Kumar was banned for two years for deliberately misrepresenting his abilities at the last Paralympics in Tokyo.

Long says intentional misrepresentation during review swims is still a huge problem in her sport.

"Just because people have disabilities, people are afraid to test it or question it. But I think you need to look at it more closely," says Long.

"Doping (control) is supposed to be random, right?... But when it comes to reviewing classifications they (the athletes) know that they're being reviewed... and we all know how to swim slower.

"You have to swim with integrity. That's the whole message of the Paralympic movement."

 'Anger and abandonment'

Paralympics athletes are often represented as against-the-odds stories but Long, who says that she wants to "be an inspiration", had an upbringing that was more eventful than most.

Born in the Siberian town of Bratsk, Long was abandoned as a baby by her Russian biological parents and adopted from an orphanage by American couple Steve and Beth Long when barely a year old.

Raised in Baltimore, Long did not meet her biological parents until she was in her early 20s, by which time she was already a multiple Paralympic gold medal winner.

Long is fully aware of the potential horrors that would have awaited her had she not been adopted.

"I don't think my life would have been very good, it would have been very ugly," says Long.

"I think you can only imagine what orphans go through, they go through a lot of terrible things. Horrible sex trafficking. I think that would have been my life."

Long admits to being angry "all the time" as a child and a young para swimmer, at her disability, being abandoned by her biological parents, and being "looked down on" as a disabled athlete.

She tells AFP how she was pushed to train with Olympic athletes like Phelps after "nobody knew or cared" when she took out the medals she won at the 2012 Paralympics at airport security on her way back to the States.

"Anger is a very powerful emotion that I don't think we talk about enough," says Long.

"People ask me where my success comes from and I would say 'abandonment and anger'.

"I truly think my success came from just wanting to be enough. And at some point I had to really re-evaluate and say 'I just love to swim'."