Jessica Long

It's really awesome to come back home and be recognized for the hard work.

It's important that people can be themselves and live a normal life that's not defined by a disability.

At 18 months old, both of my lower legs were amputated so I could be fitted with prosthetic legs and learn to walk.

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

Growing up, I was one of those energetic kids who never sat still.

The Paralympics have given me so much, and I know what this sport can do for a young kid when it's at its best.

If you're not in the right classification, you're basically stealing funding and opportunities from other people. This is not the NFL. There's only so much money to go around.

Younger kids will sometimes tease me, and that bothers me a little, but eventually I don't care.

I don't mind if adults stare. They should really know about my physical situation.

My identity is in Christ, and I really hope that I show that with just my character, the way that I do things on the pool deck.

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.'

Every Sunday after church we would go over to my grandparents' house and spend time with them and they had a pool in their backyard, and I would like eat as fast as I could just so I could be the first one in the pool. And then I would be the last one out.

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.

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

It's so nice to go to a friend's house and sleep over, stay up as late as I want.

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.

Before the Paralympic movement I definitely didn't like wearing shorts because people would stare at me.

I fell in love with this idea of becoming a swimmer. I knew two strokes at the time but I went and I just loved racing these girls with legs.

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

Winning gold medals is incredible and obviously it's what I want to do, but there's something so special about having a little girl who has just lost her leg from cancer come up and tell me I'm her hero.

I'm a leap year baby.

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.'

It would be really cool to teleport.

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 just feel so much love towards my family.

There was so much pain. Every time I grew, I had to go back in for a surgery. And I remember just being really, really scared but also, like, knowing exactly what to do. Like as a 3-year-old, I knew to crawl on top of the operating table.

I always said, as soon as I stopped loving this sport is when I probably will retire.

There was a time I used to focus on just being skinny, and now I really think about how can I be strong.

You're still a person with or without that gold medal. It just represents the hard work.

As soon as we landed in Tokyo, that's when I was like, OK. I really want to bring home a gold medal.'

I think here in the U.S., we have a hard time accepting disabilities. That's why I think it's really good to share and let kids know that its not a disability, it's an ability. You have an ability to inspire others.

I really want to share my story, but also make Paralympics more well known.

I used to not wear shorts in the summer time. I just wanted to hide it and wear long pants. Then after the Paralympics, I saw how the other athletes handled missing an arm or a leg and they didn't care. That was what I needed to see.

I love swimming, but I love knowing that kids see me as an inspiration.

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

All of my life, I've loved proving people wrong.

Maybe it's part of being an athlete, but I feel like we're really good, especially in swimming, about just pushing things down and pushing ahead.

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.

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

I'd love to see the 200s, the 50s, the 400 IM. I would do so many events.

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

It's never been just about me. It's about my grandparents who used to drive me to swim practice. My dad who - on his one day to sleep in - would take me to swim meets. My mom and my sisters who would massage my aching shoulders when I was little There have been so many people who have believed in me when I didn't believe in myself.

I don't have anything to prove.

There's something about it to me, the feeling of the water, and feeling, I don't know, equal, and like everyone else. Which is kind of funny because I didn't actually start swimming right away as a sport.

There was a time in 2008 where no one really wanted to talk to the Paralympic athletes.

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.

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

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

Putting on shoes with my prosthetic legs is still hard for me, but at the end of the day, I'm just putting on really tall shoes.

I have never viewed myself as disabled.