Paralympics

Paralympics Loyola's Wise, Snyder to swim in London Games Loyola University swimmer Joe Wise has been named to the U.S. team that will compete in the Paralympic Games in London from Aug. 29 to Sept. 9. In addition, coach Brian Loeffler will serve on the coaching staff, while Lt. Brad Snyder - a Navy veteran who lost his sight in an improvised explosive device attack in Afghanistan in September 2011 and is coached by Loeffler - also made the roster.

This Baltimore swimmer hopes to add to an already heavy stash of medals in London this summer. But in addition to training for the qualifying trials in June, there are multiple promotional demands of an Olympic year: modeling the Ralph Lauren-designed athletes attire, shooting commercials for sponsors such as Coke and speaking at media roundtables like the one held here Sunday. It's no wonder that sometimes, you just want to go and get a pretty manicure. "I call them my 'me' dates.

Jessica Long can imagine her response the first time she sees her face on a national soft drink display in the supermarket. "I'm pretty sure I'll scream and say, 'This is me!' " said Long, 19, the seven-time Paralympics swimming gold medalist from Middle River. "To see myself on a can of Coke will be exciting. " One of eight U.S. athletes chosen by Coca-Cola for a high-profile ad campaign to highlight the 2012 London Olympics, Long spent Tuesday at a pool in a fitness center in Concord, Mass., splashing and smiling for photographers.

Touch the wall - early and often. That was swimmer Jessica Long's goal at the Paralympic Games in Beijing. The Middle River teenager accomplished her task. Long won six medals - four gold, one silver and a bronze -and set three world records at the Games, which ended Tuesday. That done, she set out to complete the other mission she set for the China trip. Touch the Wall. The Great Wall. It was no easy job for Long, who wears prosthetics because her legs were amputated below the knees.

For 30 minutes they swim together, two strangers lapping the pool in adjacent lanes at the Merritt Athletic Club in Towson. Finally, the older woman climbs out and slumps on the deck, in awe of the teenager still plugging away. "She just keeps going, doesn't she?" the woman says. A man standing nearby nods. "You know," he says, "she has no legs." The woman's expression tells all. Jessica Long has wowed another. Today, Long, of Middle River, will try to wow the world at the XIII Summer Paralympics in Beijing - the Olympic Games for disabled athletes.

A Beijing-bound athlete from Maryland is featured on McDonald's beverage cups, but it's not Michael Phelps. Instead, it's Tatyana McFadden, a wheelchair sprint racer from Howard County who also is featured in a television commercial for Hilton Hotels Corp. McFadden, 19, a member of the U.S. Paralympics team that will compete in China in September, had limited endorsement opportunities when she competed in Athens four years ago. But since then, she and other disabled athletes have noticed a marked rise in corporate sponsorship opportunities.

With the trials for this year's U.S. Paralympic swimming team a little more than a week away, Jessica Long came home to Middle River one night after a recent practice and began to feel a shooting pain in her stomach. After going to bed that night, the pain intensified. "It was the worst pain I had ever felt," Long recalled Friday. That is saying a lot, considering what Long has endured in her life. Long was born without fibulas in either leg, and both of her legs were amputated below the knees when she was 18 months old - five months after she was adopted by a Baltimore family from a Russian orphanage.

There's just something about the water in Baltimore. Maybe you knew that already, but it's worth repeating. The water here, it enables you to do almost anything. Michael Phelps sprang from these waters. Katie Hoff, too. But the swimming story I hope we'll all be able to appreciate this summer is Philip Scholz's quest to represent the United States in the Paralympics. Scholz is a freshman at Loyola College. Before I even tell you about what he's able to do in the water, you've got to understand what he has already been through.

Jessica Long's proficiency in the pool is apparent after a few strokes. Bobbing up and down on the breaststroke, she's indistinguishable from the practice partners in her lane, but something seems missing from her otherwise impeccable freestyle form. The less splash swimmers make with their hands, the faster they go, but Long's kick leaves a curiously scant trail. The 14-year-old from Middle River has mastered the pull and push of water well enough to set multiple world records, but her athleticism is fully comprehended only on the pool deck.

Before she could compete in Athens, Greece, Tatyana McFadden had to complete a questionnaire: "What are your major accomplishments?" Others on the U.S. Paralympic team had more than enough answers. One was studying medicine at Yale. Another had received the Purple Heart medal in Vietnam. So the 15-year-old Atholton High freshman asked her mother for help. "Well, you graduated from eighth grade last year," said her mother, Deborah McFadden, laughing. "That counts, right?" But Tatyana's list of accomplishments started well before her final year at Lime Kiln Middle School.