When Jessica Rogers, 12, joined FISH this season, she was an unknown
to the Potomac Valley Swim leagues, but had already made her mark on the junior
national scene as a record holder in 7 swimming events.
Born with a condition called lumbo-sacral agenesis, Jessica weighs in at just under 35 lbs and is missing the lower part of her spine as well as most of both legs. Nevertheless, Jessica has always been an athlete. She plays wheelchair basketball (team ranked 1st in the Eastern region), participates in wheelchair track (taking 1st place at the 2008 junior nationals in the 100Meter 200Meter 400Meter events), and she swims.
Jessica's goal is to make the 2012 Paralympics team, swimming in 50M and 100M events. She joined FISH looking for some training closer to home to help her bridge the gap between junior championships and Paralympics level swimming. Jessica trains at the new FISH location, Audrey Moore RECenter at Wakefield Park. She has great coaches in Coach Julie and Coach Megan.
Paralympic athletes are classed according to the impact their level of disability has on their swimming. Jessica swims in an S-4 classification, meaning that she is using only her arms for swimming. Recently Jessica competed in the Eastern Regional Junior Disability Meet in New Jersey. She swam in 8 events, placing first in all, and easily qualifying for junior nationals. Most importantly, Jessica's times have dropped significantly, so that she now meets cut off times in all of these events for Paralympic Trials. Jessica plans to enter her first international meet, the GTAC Open, in Ohio this coming May. We expect to see some American records falling as a result.
