The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Swimming, Basketball, and Ducks

This latest edition of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly features some more under the radar stories from the world of sports.

The Good! Being abandoned as a baby in Russia, adopted from an orphanage at one year old and having your legs amputated at age 18 months due to severe birth defects may seem an odd way to begin the good section of this article but for Jessica Long it was how life began. Today she is a multiple Paralympics gold medalist.

The Paralympics are held every four years for people with disabilities. They directly follow the Olympics and are held in the same city and venues. This year’s version is drawing to a close in Beijing. Thousands of athletes compete in hundreds of events and China currently leads the medal race over the United States.

Jessica Long originally wanted to be a gymnast but her parents worried about the stress on her knees from her artificial legs so at the age of ten she took up swimming. Two years later, at the age of twelve, she was a gold medalist at the Athens Paralympics. Today, at age 16, she is a multiple world champion and world record holder. Her times would enable her to swim competitively in college. At the Beijing Paralympics, Long won four golds, one silver, and one bronze medal. Should she decide to continue swimming she could become the most decorated Paralympian is history. Jessica Long has not only overcome tremendous physical handicaps but has achieved far more than most people who take the basics of life for granted.

The Bad! Elena Della Donne is a walk-on volleyball player at the University of Delaware. This would not be a worthy story except for the fact that a year ago Della Donne received the Naismith Award as the best female high school basketball player in the United States. She was a 6'4" guard with skills that may have allowed her to immediately play in the WNBA. As such she was recruited by just about every major college program in the country. She chose basketball power UConn. She lasted two days at Connecticut and went home to Delaware to play volleyball.

Article Author: David Bowling

I have been collecting vinyl records for over forty years and my collection is approaching 50.000 records. My wife Susan and children, Stacey and Amy, have learned to humor my passion. I am now settled in beautiful Whispering Pines, North Carolina …

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