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Four Team USA swimmers – including Jessica Long, one of the most successful Paralympians of all time – face a ban and loss of earnings after appearing to question the disability of a teammate on social media. Long – who has won 18 career gold medals across six Paralympic Games – was barred from attending the closing ceremony in Paris alongside Gia Pergolini, Julia Gaffney and Anastasia Pagonis.
They face several other punishments, too, pending appeal. Long and Co would be barred from competing for the national team until next spring or attending Team USA’s trip to Washington DC. Their stipends would also be withheld. As detailed by the Washington Post , they are accused of taking aim at Christie Raleigh Crossley, who won five medals, including two golds, over the summer.
The swimmer has reportedly faced questions over her disability for several years. The 37-year-old suffered neck and back injuries after being struck by a drunk driver in 2007. Raleigh Crossley sustained a brain injury in a hit and run the following year and then, in 2018, she experienced paralysis down her left side due to a brain tumor. Raleigh Crossley competes in the S9 classification and last month she set a new 50-meter freestyle world record.
World Para Swimming toasted the American on social media , only for her Spanish counterpart Sarai Gascon Moreno to comment: ‘S9? It’s a joke?’. Long replied to the Spaniard: ‘I stand with you’. Gaffney, meanwhile, commented on another Instagram post about Raleigh Crossley: ‘Not a positive impact.
Intentional misrepresentation is never cute’. Those words prompted Pagonis to write ‘this’, while Pergolini added: ‘Well said.’ Raleigh Crossley said that the saga led her to separate herself from her teammates while in Paris, the Washington Post reported.
‘I went from enjoying a world record to being utterly devastated that the entire world seems to think I was a cheater and that I was somehow faking the hole in my brain and the cyst in my spinal cord,’ Raleigh Crossley said. ‘To be told online by all of these bullies that I am not somehow disabled as I appear, just because I can swim faster than them, it’s pretty devastating.’
Her teammates’ comments were reportedly found to have violated the USOPC’s code of conduct, which requires athletes to ‘ respect members of Team USA and the U.S. Delegation to the Games’ and ‘act in a way that will bring respect and honor to yourself, your teammates.’
A USOPC spokesperson told the Post: ‘We can confirm that sanctions have been imposed on several athletes due to unacceptable behavior. ‘It is important to uphold the standards expected of Team USA athletes, and we remain committed to addressing any actions that undermine our values.’
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