Written by: Isabelle Hendrich, staff writer
DAYTON, Tenn. — Jessica Long appeared in a sixty-second Super Bowl Commercial on Sat. Feb. 7, 2021.
The minute-long commercial featured Long’s story from her adoption to becoming the second-most decorated U.S. paralympian.
Long is currently 28-years-old from Baltimore, Maryland. She was adopted when she was 13 months old from Russia. Long was born with fibular hemimelia, which is a condition where she didn’t have most of the bones in her feet, including fibulas, ankles, and heels.
At 18 months old, Long had her legs amputated below the knees. She had more than a dozen surgeries following the amputation.
The paralympian had an opportunity to meet her birth parents in 2013. Before she met them, Long said, “When I first see my Russian family, I want them to know that I’m not angry with them, that I’m not upset that they gave me up for adoption.”
Long has won 23 medals in the Paralympian games. In 2004 at age 12, she started her paralympic journey in Athens, Greece. She was the youngest Parlamypic on the team and won three gold medals.
In addition, Long participated in the Beijing, China, London, England, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil paralympic games. She won multiple medals in each game.
Besides Trischa Zorn, a fellow paralympic swimmer who is blind, Long has the most paralympic medals in American history. She plans on attending the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021.
Isabelle Hendrich is a communication major and history minor at Bryan College. Besides running, Isabelle likes to read and do crafts. She is a triplet whose siblings, Benjamin and Savannah, are also attending Bryan College.
