Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Jessica Long.
Last updated on November 25, 2024.
Jessica Tatiana Long is a Russian-American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. She has held many world records and competed at five Paralympic Games, winning 29 medals. She has also won over 50 world championship medals.
I tried my hardest to stay fit and active during quarantine. I went to my PT office four to five times a week. I did weights, a stationary bike, a rowing machine, and lots of abs.
I am so grateful that respected global swimwear brand Arena stepped up to support U.S. Paralympics as a supplier. They also sponsor me individually, as their first Paralympic swimmer.
I remember being really angry. I remember not wanting anything to do with God, and I was going in for surgeries every three months. And I mean, all I ever heard was God made me this way and I was like, 'Hmm, I don't think I like that.'
I had the freedom to be alone with myself, completely unlimited by my circumstances or my body while doing what I loved. I think that's why I took to swimming with such ease.
When I first began competing, brands were quite hesitant to feature disabled athletes in advertisements, perhaps due to a fear of offending consumers.
I don't know anyone who has made it through this life with it being super easy. Life is hard.
Swimming, it's the best job.
I enjoy my own company.
I'm a big SkinCeuticals girl. I use their hyaluronic acid when my skin is a little wet, and I let it soak in.
Bedtime is truly one of my favorite times.
One athlete I absolutely love is Melissa Stockwell.
I always said, as soon as I stopped loving this sport is when I probably will retire.
As a 12-year-old when I won my first gold in Athens, I wanted people to know what the Paralympic games were.
Swimming was truly a way that I just felt that freedom from all of those surgeries and the pain.
Everyone had a loss or lost something during COVID. I allowed myself to take long baths, watch cheesy movies, and just tried to slow down, and I made sure to maintain my mental health.
When I started I only swam freestyle, and did just freestyle in my first Paralympics.
Each year the excitement and the build-up for the Paralympics Games has grown more and more.
I really love to sleep. I think that's an amputee thing because I'm exhausted throughout the day.
Before I step on a starting block, I will clap three times and shake out my arms twice. I don't feel ready to race unless I do that.
I think in today's world, we're so busy, and we're so distracted. But it's also really important to slow down.
I know I'm enough with or without the gold medals. I just love to swim.
I'm a leap year baby.
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.
It's great to be No. 1, but it's even greater to inspire people.
You're still a person with or without that gold medal. It just represents the hard work.
Overall, I believe there has been a significant shift in the acceptance and appreciation of Paralympic athletes, but we still have a long way to go.
My career and my life was one that probably wasn't supposed to be.
For me, I don't kick because I don't have legs.
I feel like Rio 2016 was my worst performance, and really my burnout.
It would be really cool to teleport.
For swimming, we don't really have an offseason.
Like in Athens, it went by so fast and I mean, I remember it being like the best trip ever. And I am so excited for Beijing. Like at Opening Ceremonies when you walk out with your whole team and you are all marching and they light the torch, I mean - it is so exciting.
Here in Tokyo, this is one of my favorite Paralympics I've ever attended.
I was never bullied as a kid, and I didn't know that I was going to be bullied by adults because I park in handicapped. And I get it - I'm young and athletic - but I'm also missing legs.
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.
After a Paralympic Games, I usually take a few months off to enjoy life or go on a family vacation.
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.
I love routines and love having something to look forward to.
When I look back on my life, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, have I swum the entire world? How many miles have I actually swam?'
I met my sister Nastya, and saw that I looked very much like her. Nastya is just a year younger than I am.
Something that really irritates me is when I come to a four-way stop, and I clearly have the right of way, and the other person who doesn't have the right of way waves for me to go. I'm like, 'Yeah, I know I can go.'
My parents in America always told me that I was adopted. It's never been a secret to me.
It's important that people can be themselves and live a normal life that's not defined by a disability.
All my life I have had to fight to catch up with people. But not in the water. That's the one place where everyone else is trying to keep up with me!
I got married in October 2019, so all of 2019, I was planning my wedding.
Swimming forced me to deal with the things I wanted to escape. It helped me work through a lot of feelings and frustrations, because I had hours under water just to swim laps and think.
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 15 minutes of putting in a deep conditioner or doing my makeup are all I need to feel good.
I love swimming, but swimming can't be my entire identity, my entire world.
The water has always been a place of freedom, safety, but also feeling really strong and capable.
I love taking Epsom salt baths.
I didn't think anybody else in the entire world looked like me.
There are things out of my control and that fuels my fire.
I really live for the racing, the moments in those races where everything slows down even though you're swimming as fast as possible.
I love putting on a candle, reading a book, and just taking a second for me.
Everyone had legs. Even my younger sisters both had legs. It was hard to comprehend what I did wrong: Why me? Then I found out about the Paralympics. It really did completely change my life.
I'd love the gold and that's what I'm obviously going for, but if I never bring home another gold in my life, I am more than enough.
One of the very first fashion features where I appeared without my prosthetic legs was in ELLE magazine's publication, 'Gold Rush.'
When I'm sad, I let myself be sad, but at the same time, I've been finding ways to pick myself back up.