Covenant News

Covenanter Earns Position on Paralympics Swim Team

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (May 18, 2004) - Elizabeth Stone of First Evangelical Covenant Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, earned a spot on the U.S. Paralympics swimming team by registering two qualifying marks at the U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials April 22-24.

A member of the Rockford, Michigan, Riptide Swim Club, Stone participated in nine events at the University of Minnesota Aquatics Center. She earned her place in September's Paralympics Games in Athens, Greece, by qualifying in both the 100-meter backstroke and the 100-meter butterfly races in the S9 category. In August, Stone and her U.S. Paralympics swimming team will train at the ARCO U.S. Olympic Training Center near San Diego.

The 13-year-old attends West Side Christian School in Grand Rapids. She was born with Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency - her femur is extremely short - and she had four surgeries to correct the situation. She later had her foot amputated, according to her mother, Linda. This disability qualifies her as a S-9 swimmer (those with above-knee or below-elbow amputations are also in that category).

During the summer at the club level, Stone swims with able-bodied teens in age-group competitions and competes favorably in most events. At the recent swim trials, she was pitted against much older competitors, but still managed to make her mark. In the 100 backstroke, she bettered the 1:25.00 Paralympics qualifying standard twice during the competition and swam a 1:21.90 in the event finals to finish second behind 18-year-old Jen Durrant (1:20.03). In the 100 butterfly, Stone swam a 1:24.51 for third in that event as 27-year-old Kelly Crowley won the race in 1:18.19.

Along with qualifying in two events, Stone set a Pan American record and broke her own American record in the S9 category with a 1,500 freestyle time of 22:38.54, her mother added. Last June, she had set the 1,500 mark in Minneapolis while winning three events at the USA Disability National swimming championships in Minneapolis.

Stone is involved in wheelchair basketball when she's not swimming and she earned All-Tournament honors in March as her Grand Rapids Junior Pacers 14-and-under team finished fourth during a national meet in Philadelphia. She also participated with a high school entry that placed third in its division.

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