MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM – Already one of the
most decorated Para swimmers of all time, Jessica Long (Baltimore,
Maryland) wrote another chapter in her storied career Wednesday night in
Manchester, winning her 36th career world championships title as Team USA took to the pool for the third day of the
2023 Para Swimming World Championships.
Long, who now has 53 career world championships medals to her name, put an
exclamation point on a four-medal night for Team USA, which was supplemented by
a trio of bronze medal performances from Olivia Chambers (Little
Rock, Arkansas), Elizabeth Marks (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
and Noah Jaffe (Carlsbad, California).
The four medals give Team USA 12 total podiums over the first three days of
competition.
The 29-time Paralympic medalist Long surged to victory by nearly a full second
in the women’s 100-meter butterfly S8 for Team USA’s second title of the meet.
After winning her preliminary heat, Long’s time of 1:12.70 in the final topped
Weiyuan Lu of China by .94 seconds, and bronze medalist Shengan Jiang, also of
China, by 3.56.
“This summer has been really difficult, I’ve been training by myself, so I’m
really happy with the results,” Long said. “I love the 100 butterfly, and I
came into this meet just wanting to have fun. I obviously wanted to get the
gold, but I also just wanted to do my best.”
One of the greatest S8 butterfly swimmers of all time, Long is the defending
Paralympic champion in the event. She has three Paralympic titles in the
100-meter butterfly race, and tonight’s win is her seventh career world title
in the event, dating back to the 2009 world championships.
“I started when I was 12, and I am hoping to end my career at LA 2028,” she
said. “For me, I recognize that my race isn’t done yet, and I want to finish my
race strong.”
In the men’s 100-meter butterfly S8, Jaffe nabbed his second bronze medal in
Manchester in dramatic fashion. After touching the wall fourth in 1:04.77,
Jaffe was bumped up to third when Dimosthenis Michalentzakis of Greece was
disqualified.
For Jaffe, who has only recently started training competitively in butterfly,
the medal was both a surprise and validation.
“I was in shock,” he said. “I’ve only been focusing on butterfly for a couple
of months, so I didn’t expect to be getting on the podium. I was a little upset
when I saw the number four on the scoreboard, so it made it even better when I
found out I got the bronze.”
The University of California, Berkeley, student has a quick turnaround, as he
is set to compete in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S8 preliminary heats
tomorrow morning.
After a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter backstroke earlier in the week,
Marks responded with a bronze medal win in the women’s 200-meter individual
medley SM6. It is the five-time Paralympic medalist’s first medal in the event
at a major international competition.
She adds her fifth world championships medal to her resumé.
“I’ve been a little under the weather, so I didn’t really have any expectations
for today,” she said. “My aim was just to be grateful that we got to swim and
celebrate that, and that’s what we did.”
Marks will compete next in the 50-meter freestyle on Aug. 4. She is the
reigning Paralympic and worlds bronze medalist in the event.
Completing a medal hat trick in her first career world championships tonight
was Chambers, who snagged her third bronze of the competition in the women’s
100-meter freestyle S13. The University of Northern Iowa student-athlete has
now won medals in three different strokes – breaststroke, butterfly and
freestyle – in her worlds debut.
Tonight, Chambers swam a 1:00.12 100-meter freestyle to give her her third
medal. After her race, she said three medals was not her expectation for
herself going into Manchester.
“I just came here to see what this is all about, and to just have fun,” she
said. “When I’m having fun, that’s when I seem to swim my best.”
The 20-year-old has one of the busiest event programs for Team USA – she is
racing every day except Thursday and has six total individual events. She said
managing her workload hasn’t been difficult.
“I just love to get up and race, it’s what I want to do every day,” she said.
“I see every race as a chance to represent Team USA, and it’s just such an
honor. I just want to keep competing and having fun.”
Three-time Paralympic medalist Lizzi Smith (Muncie, Indiana) opened
her 2023 world championships with a fourth-place finish in the women’s
100-meter butterfly S9. In a tight race between the top four athletes, her time
of 1:09.41 was just over a second off the gold medal pace. Smith has two more
individual events in Manchester, the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle
competitions.
In her world championships debut, Hannah Nelson (Yankton, South
Dakota) put together a seventh-place finish in the women’s 400-meter freestyle
S10. The 20-year-old swam two seconds faster in her final than her prelim, and
finished in 4:54.67. A specialist in the 400-meter freestyle, Nelson’s
individual competition slate has concluded.
Making his Manchester debut in his second career world
championships, Morgan Ray (St. Augustine, Florida) recorded an
eighth-place result in the men’s 200-meter individual medley SM6. Ray, who
celebrated his 21st birthday today, qualified for the final after finishing
third in his heat. He swam a 2:59.08 in the final. He still has his best event,
the 100-meter breaststroke, left in his schedule in Manchester. Ray won the
silver medal in the event at the 2022 world championships.
In the morning session, Summer Schmit (Stillwater, Minnesota)
and Audrey Kim (Salt Lake City, Utah) each placed sixth in their
preliminary heats of the women’s 100-meter butterfly S9 and the women’s
400-meter freestyle S10. Schmit will be back in the pool for the 400-meter
freestyle S9 on Friday morning, the event in which she is the defending worlds
bronze medalist. Kim, meanwhile, has one individual event left on her program
as well, the 100-meter freestyle on Saturday.
Competition resumes August 3 at 9 a.m. local time with the fourth day of
preliminary heats. All sessions will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock, and
live results can be found here https://www.paralympic.org/manchester-2023/schedule-and-results
Follow U.S. Paralympics Swimming on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram for updates and results throughout the competition, which
runs through August 6.
Team USA Medals – August 2
GOLD
Jessica Long – women’s 100-meter butterfly S8
BRONZE
Olivia Chambers – women’s 100-meter freestyle S13
Noah Jaffe – men’s 100-meter butterfly S8
Elizabeth Marks – women’s 200-meter individual medley SM
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