Florida Teen Makes 2011 USA Parapan American Games Swim Team

 GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Local teen Jaide Childs is swimming her way to Mexico – the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara to be exact.

Childs, a seventh grader at St. Patrick Interparish School in Gainesville, recently found out she is one of 25 athletes in the nation nominated to the USA swim team for the event.

Held every four years, the two-week-long Parapan Games will bring together the top 140 physically-impaired athletes in 13 sports from throughout North and South America

Childs has arthrogyposis, a rare disease characterized by multiple joint contractures.

Though the disease caused her to be born without biceps or triceps, leading to limited use of her arms, she has not let that stop her from breaking four swimming records and placing in multiple prestigious swim meets throughout the country in the past year.

Childs qualified for the Parapan team based on her performance at the U.S. Paralympic Spring Swimming Nationals at the beginning of April. She is ecstatic to have made the team for such a large-scale competition.

 “I’m excited to just get there and win it,” Jaide said.

To prepare for the games, Childs is going to keep up her routine of five-day-a-week swim practices, and will attend a training camp with the rest of the USA Parapan team in Colorado this June.

Having just started competitively swimming a little over a year ago, Childs has made a tremendous amount of progress in a short amount of time, said her swim coach at High Tide Aquatics Jennifer Davis, who will also serve as an assistant coach on the USA Parapan swim team.

“Within a year her life has gone from being a regular kid to being able to represent America at a world sporting event,” Davis said.

And Childs is not satisfied with stopping here. She sees this event as a stepping stone to her ultimate goal of making it to the 2012 Paralympic Games, scheduled to be held immediately following the Olympic Games is London.

“As soon as I heard I made this team, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I could actually make it London,’” she said.

Most of all, Childs hopes that her making the team will serve as an example to other physically impaired young people.

“I want them to see that they can do it,” she said. “They can achieve their dreams just like I am.”

photo by Dawn McKinstry Photography