Michael Phelps congratulates Jessica Long on winning her 31 Paralympic medal at the quadrennial games in Paris

Jessica Long won a record 31st medal at the Paris Paralympics with a gold medal in the women's 100m butterfly S8 category. She was congratulated by none other than Olympic legend Michael Phelps for her historic achievement.

Phelps took to Instagram to express his admiration for Jessica Long's historic achievement.

He wrote on his Instagram story,

"Congrats J-Lo [Gold Medal Emoji]"

Michael Phelps congratulates Jessica Long for her historic achievement [Image : Michael Phelps' Instagram]

Long clocked 1 minute, 10.59 seconds to win the gold medal. Viktoriia Ishchiulova from the Neutral Paralympic Athletes team won the silver medal with a timing of 1 minute, 11.62 seconds. Alice Tai of Great Britain took home the bronze medal with a timing of 1 minute, 13.60 seconds.

With this achievement, the five-time Paralympian has now 31 Paralympic medals to her name across five Paralympics, with 18 gold medals, 8 silver medals, and 5 bronze medals to her credit. Her best performance was at the 2012 London Paralympics, where she won 5 gold medals, 2 silver medals, and a bronze medal.

Jessica Long's total is 3 more than Michael Phelps, who is the most decorated Olympic swimmer of all time. Long won 31 medals, while Phelps won 28 medals overall. However, Michael Phelps is ahead in one aspect; he has won 23 gold medals at the Olympics, while Jessica Long has won 18 gold medals at the Paralympics!

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Jessica Long's performance at the 2024 Paris Paralympics

Jessica Long reacts after winning the women's 100m butterfly S8 event [Image Source: Getty]

Paris Paralympics was Jessica Long's fifth consecutive appearance as a Paralympic swimmer for the USA. She made her international as well as Paralympic debut at the age of 12 when she participated in the Athens Paralympics in 2004. Long participated in the 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and the 4x100m freestyle relay [S8] events and won all of them.

Since then, Long never looked back, making strides with every edition of the Paralympics. At the previous edition held in Tokyo, Jessica Long had won a record six medals, including three gold, two silver, and a bronze medal overall.

At the Paris Paralympics 2024, however, Jessica Long had a roller coaster ride. In the 100m backstroke as well as the 200m individual medley [S8] events, she qualified for the finals but finished outside the medals. While she finished sixth in the backstroke finals, it was worse for Long in the 200m individual medley, as she missed the Paralympic podium by a whisker.

However, she left all that behind to win yet another gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle S8, with a timing of 4 minutes and 48.74 seconds. This was Jessica Long's 17th gold medal at the Paralympics. Alice Tai, who had won the bronze medal in the 100m butterfly event, had won the silver medal, while Xenia Palazzo of Italy had won the bronze medal in the same.