American Paralympic Champion Jessica Long has broken the World Record in the women’s 1500m freestyle for S8’s by almost a minute, swimming this past weekend at the 2015 California Classic.
Long was the only woman to swim the distance event and the 23-year old Loyola University swimmer touched in 19:03.34. Her previous best time, which was also the old World Record, is a 20:00.35 done in 2007 when she was just past her 15th birthday.
She made a formal split request at the 800, where she touched in 10:06.53, in an attempt to break that record en route to the 1500 time, but was 21 seconds short of her own 9:45.08 World Record there.
Long currently holds 16 World Records: 11 in long course meters and 5 in short course meters. Her other results at the weekend meet:
- 100 free (S8) – 1:08.63
- 200 free (S8) – 2:23.32
- 400 free (S8) – 4:48.90
- 50 breast (SB7) – 46.04
- 200 breast (SB7) – 3:27.09
- 50 back (S8) – 41.74
I was in Scotland for the World Championships and was disappointed , not with the swimmers from the US but the coaches in charge of the event, especially the US coaches. Are they not supposed to support their athletes. When there is controversy surrounding a classification, shouldn’t they use the system that they have instead of just accepting any decision handed down. There was controversy surrounding the classification of Madison Elliott, who managed to swim quite a bit faster three days later after her classification than when she was tested in the same stroke, but the American coaches didn’t even take the time protest even though there is a process in the system to do that. Madison Elliott is not… Read more »
This is a fantastic swim by one of the greats!! Many questions comes to mind every time an athlete swims a best time in an obscure (to them) event. The burning question might soon become: when will we see records again in events contested at the Rio Games? This is not a question for Jessica, but one for all of the coaches in America training our best US Paralympic swimmers. Do the math. We are relying right now on one or two consistent performers. The world has caught the USA’s up-and-coming dominance of the 2000’s and I believe this step backward is soley in the hands of, and the blame of…the coaches. I’m one of the few that actually follow… Read more »
Most athletes in Scotland? Everyone can just skip what this person wrote. Reminds of what my mom told me: if you don’t know what you are talking about its best to just keep your mouth shut.
also the comment about relying on a few athletes to medal is the same for all countries, more facts you should check before you post this nonsense