Jessica Long

“I always loved the water. It's a place I can just take off these heavy prosthetics and just jump in the water and feel no different.”

“I have trained so so hard to be where I am at - I train with Olympic athletes and if I'm struggling to get to the top then there is something wrong.”

“I just feel so much love towards my family.”

“I've been a bilateral amputee since birth and don't know anything else.”

“I'm older. I'm 29. How many people stick with this sport? Dedication, consistency, it's very hard.”

“At age 4 I started in gymnastics and used that as an outlet for my endless energy for several years.”

“In 2018 I really hurt my back, my lower back, and it's been a couple of years where we finally found out that I have an extra vertebra in my back.”

“The last five years I've really worked on my mental health and seeing a therapist - which, it's so funny cause I thought that in going into therapy, I was going to talk all about swimming, and if anything, I never talk about swimming.”

“My legs are heavy. They hurt me. I'm in pain So to all the handicap police out there, just be kind. You don't need to know why someone's parked in handicapped - and yeah, just be kind.”

“I'm a big vitamins girl. I take iron because, especially being a female athlete, I have to make sure iron levels are good to go.”

“Sometimes people look at people with disabilities and there's a moment where they just feel sorry for them.”

“I always loved pretending I was a fish or a mermaid while swimming in my grandparents' pool.”

“The idea that I got to be on a team with Trischa Zorn - as a 12-year-old - is wild to me.”

“I've always just been really really active and I never wanted my legs to hold me back.”

“You didn't have to tell a girl with no legs that she, you know, I knew I was different. I was missing half of my body. But I really had incredible parents who really taught me that, you know, God has always had a special a plan for me.”

“My parents in America always told me that I was adopted. It's never been a secret to me.”

“When I started I only swam freestyle, and did just freestyle in my first Paralympics.”

“My career and my life was one that probably wasn't supposed to be.”

“I sit down in a chair, and I take off my two heavy little prosthetic legs and I crawl on my knees to the edge of the pool and I just jumped in, and I just instantly loved it.”

“I didn't think anybody else in the entire world looked like me.”