Jessica Long

Jessica Tatiana Long was born Tatiana Olegovna Kirillova in Bratsk, Russia, on February 29, 1992. Adopted by American parents at 13 months old, she underwent amputations of her lower legs at 18 months due to fibular hemimelia, subsequently learning to walk with prostheses. Her early engagement in various sports, including gymnastics, cheerleading, ice skating, biking, trampoline, and rock climbing, laid the foundation for her athletic career. Her competitive swimming journey began in 2002, and by 2003, she was named Maryland Swimming’s Female Swimmer with a Disability of the Year. Long trained with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.

Long made her international debut at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, at the age of twelve, becoming the youngest member of the U.S. Paralympic Team and winning three gold medals. In 2006, she achieved widespread recognition by breaking 18 world records and earning nine gold medals at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Durban, South Africa. This made her the first Paralympic athlete to receive the AAU’s James E. Sullivan Award in 2006. She was also named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Paralympian of the Year and Swimming World Magazine’s Disabled Swimmer of the Year in the same year.

Her career continued with significant milestones, including multiple gold medals at various Paralympic Games and World Championships. She has competed in six Paralympic Games, accumulating 31 medals, 18 of which are gold, along with over 50 world championship medals. Long has also been recognized with the ESPN Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award multiple times (2007, 2012, 2013, 2022). In 2013, a special NBC broadcast, ‘Long Way Home,’ documented her journey to meet her biological parents. In 2021, her adoption story was featured in Toyota’s ‘Upstream’ Super Bowl commercial.