After 12 days of competition in Paris, hundreds of athletes from the United States gathered one last time for the Paralympics Closing Ceremonies on Sept. 8. Many of the country’s top athletes arrived at Stade de France together, wearing ponchos in the rain as they celebrated their 105 medals, the third most of any country.
By Roman Stubbs
and But several notable competitors were absent from the delegation. Hours earlier, four U.S. swimmers — including Jessica Long, one of the most decorated Paralympians ever — had been barred from attending as part of punishments imposed by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
The penalties against Long, who won two gold medals in Paris, and three other athletes — gold medalist Gia Pergolini, bronze medalist Julia Gaffney and Anastasia Pagonis — stem from posts on social media that appeared to question the disability of a U.S. teammate during the swimming competition in Paris and violated USOPC rules, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.
In addition to an abrupt ending to the swimmers’ trips to Paris, the penalties, pending appeal, also would levy suspensions barring the athletes from competing for the national team through next spring, withhold stipends and ban the athletes from participating in Team USA’s celebratory trip to D.C. this year.
The Washington Post reviewed one disciplinary email that listed the alleged infractions and punishments. According to the email, the USOPC’s Rules Application Panel determined the athletes’ public comments violated the “Delegation Terms” of conduct requirements they signed and agreed to follow before the Games, including “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.”
Long, Pergolini, Gaffney and Pagonis did not respond to requests for comment. A USOPC spokesperson declined to discuss specifics of the punishments but said in a statement: “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.”
A six-time Paralympian who won her first medal at 12 during the 2004 Games in Athens, Long is considered the face of U.S. Paralympic swimming. The 32-year-old from Baltimore has won 18 career gold medals, including in the 400-meter S8 freestyle and the 100-meter S8 butterfly in Paris, and her 31 total medals are the second most of any American Paralympian in history.
Over the past decade, Long also has been an outspoken critic of the Paralympics classification system, which divides athletes into competitions with others with similar impairments to ensure fair competition. In Paris, she appeared to take aim at U.S. swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley, who has a neurological condition classified as S9 and has faced questions about her disability since joining para swimming in 2022.
After Raleigh Crossley set a world record in the 50-meter freestyle-S9 preliminary heat Aug. 29, World Para Swimming, the sport’s global governing body, celebrated the milestone with an Instagram post. Sarai Gascon Moreno, a Spanish swimmer in Raleigh Crossley’s class, commented on the post “S9? It’s a joke?” And beneath Gascon Moreno’s comment, Long replied, “I stand with you.”
In another Instagram post in reference to Raleigh Crossley, Gaffney wrote: “Not a positive impact. Intentional misrepresentation is never cute.” In response to that post, Pagonis wrote “this” next to a raising hands emoji, while Pergolini commented “well said” with a raising hands emoji.
Raleigh Crossley said later the incident led her to distance herself from U.S. Paralympic swimming during the rest of her schedule in Paris.
After her first day of competition in Paris, Raleigh Crossley, who declined to comment for this story, was accompanied by a USOPC athlete safety representative during training and competition. Raleigh Crossley won five medals, including two golds, and publicly defended her disability throughout the Games.
The 37-year-old New Jersey native suffered neck and back injuries after being hit by a drunk driver in 2007 and a brain injury after a crash the following year. In 2018, she experienced paralysis on her left side due to the bleeding of a previously unknown blood tumor in her brain, according to her Team USA profile.
“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 in Paris. “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.”
In the hours before she won her 30th gold medal Sept. 4, Long was asked about her social media post in reference to Raleigh Crossley, whom she didn’t name. Long did not deny commenting on Gascon Moreno’s post.
“For me, I’ve seen the Paralympic movement for so long. I think we have intentional misrepresentation [rules] for a reason. And I think we are not using it. I think we really should, right?” Long said. “I want to see Paralympics with integrity. I want to see it better. And that’s what I will always stand for.”
As one of the most recognizable Paralympic stars, Long is supported by several corporate sponsors, including Toyota and Arena. Long’s agent declined to comment on the USOPC’s ruling, but Long had been outspoken about suspected cheating in the Paralympic pool long before the Paris Games began. In an interview with The Post in August, she said: “I’m just really frustrated because we’re so afraid to call people out almost in that disabled space, where it’s like, ‘No, you can’t ask me those types of questions.’ But I think we need to take it up a notch.”
U.S. swimmers brought home 30 medals, 10 of them gold, at the Paris Games. Pergolini won the team’s first gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke S13 and followed with a silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle S13. Gaffney won bronze in the 200-meter individual medley SM7; Pagonis’s best finish was fourth in the 400-meter freestyle S11.
The swimmers were notified via email during the final days of the Games that the USOPC’s Rules Application Panel would be reviewing allegations that they violated delegation terms by disparaging a teammate on social media.
A ruling apparently came about 24 hours later, and the athletes received another email informing them of the punishments. According to the disciplinary email reviewed by The Post, athletes facing penalties have the right to an appeal hearing. The hearing panel, which is intended to serve as an impartial and neutral body, is composed of the USOPC board chair, the chair of the Team USA Athletes’ Commission and the chair of the NGB Council.
On one of her final days of competition in Paris, as a member of the USOPC’s athletic safety team hovered nearby, Raleigh Crossley said there was “a lot more that still needs to be done within U.S. para swimming” but that she was satisfied with how the USOPC handled her concerns with online comments from teammates.
“I feel so supported by the USOPC and Team USA at large,” she said. “So I do think change is coming, and I think it’s going to be for the better.”
