JENKINS Mikaela

United States of America

Date of Birth: 11 Mar 2003

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Sport Class: S10,SB9,SM10

Place of birth: TAMPA, FL

Birth Country:

United States of America

Place of residence : EVANSVILLE, IN

Residence Country:

United States of America

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Swimming	Women's 100m Backstroke - S10
	Women's 100m Breaststroke - SB9	8
	Women's 100m Butterfly - S10	1
	Women's 200m Individual Medley - SM10	7
	Women's 4x100m Medley Relay - 34 Points USA United States	1

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Women's 100m Breaststroke - SB9 Heat 1	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Women's 100m Breaststroke - SB9 Final	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Women's 100m Butterfly - S10 Final	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Women's 100m Backstroke - S10 Heat 1	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Women's 4x100m Medley Relay - 34 Points Final	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Women's 200m Individual Medley - SM10 Heat 1	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Women's 200m Individual Medley - SM10 Final	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Rank	Event	Year	Location	Result
World Championships
1	100m Butterfly - S10	2019	London, GBR	1:07.07
2	4x100m Freestyle Relay - 34 Points	2019	London, GBR	4:24.60
2	4x100m Medley Relay - 34 Points	2019	London, GBR	4:58.39
5	200m Individual Medley - SM10	2019	London, GBR	2:36.22
6	100m Backstroke - S10	2019	London, GBR	1:13.49
8	400m Freestyle - S10	2019	London, GBR	4:47.96
8	100m Breaststroke - SB9	2019	London, GBR	1:30.08

Travel, spending time with friends, watching movies, reading books. (teamusa.org, 04 Dec 2019, 15 Sep 2019; Instagram profile, 10 Mar 2021)

Occupation:

Languages spoken:

FJ Reitz High School [USA] / Newburgh Sea Creatures [USA]

Dave Baumeyer [FJ Reitz High School]; Aaron Opell [Newburgh]

She began swimming at age seven. (reitzmirror.com, 25 Jan 2018)

She practised horseback riding until she was age seven. One of her friends then encouraged her to start swimming. "I said, 'Fine, I'll come once if you stop asking me'. I kind of quit riding horses the next day. I tried a couple swimming practices and realised I really enjoyed it. I really love to compete. I love the feeling of racing in the water. Even if I don't win, I have the knowledge that I tried my best and that allows me to walk away feeling satisfied and content." (teamusa.org, 04 Dec 2019; reitzmirror.com, 25 Jan 2018)

To compete at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (evansvilleliving.com, 15 Jun 2019)

US swimmers Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps, US Para swimmer Rebecca Meyers. (evansvilleliving.com, 15 Jun 2019; reitzmirror.com, 25 Jan 2018)

Her mother, and coach Aaron Opell. (championsofactivewomen.libsyn.com, 29 Jan 2020)

Philosophy:

"If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren't willing to do." [Michael Phelps] (reitzmirror.com, 25 Jan 2018)

General Interest

Classification
S10, SB9, SM10 (IPC, 15 Mar 2021)

Type of Impairment
Limb deficiency (tristatehomepage.com, 15 Mar 2015)

Origin of Impairment
Congenital (tristatehomepage.com, 15 Mar 2015)

Impairment Details
She was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency [PFFD], which meant one of her legs was longer than the other. At age eight months, her left foot was amputated. She was fitted with her first prosthesis at age one. "I have to do my dives differently than other swimmers and kicking, I've had to really work on strengthening my right leg and making sure both legs work together." (teamusa.org, 15 Sep 2019; tristatehomepage.com, 15 Mar 2015; 44 News Evansville, 13 Jan 2021)

General
COVID-19 IMPACT
She said she was partly glad that the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo were postponed to 2021, as she did not feel mentally ready to compete in Tokyo in 2020. "In a way, I'm grateful for it being postponed a year. It was definitely disappointing but it did give me some relief because I was not mentally prepared to take on that meet this year [2020]. So I think it has given me a lot more time to think through how I want to approach my swims and approach that whole meet." (44 News Evansville YouTube channel, 13 Jan 2021; teamusa.org, 25 Aug 2020)

TRAINING ISSUES
She trains with able-bodied swimmers, and completes all the same drills during training. However, she finds she can sometimes have difficulty kicking and pushing off the wall in the pool. "Kicking always is going to be my downfall because I'm just never going to have as much power as other people. It's just working on strengthening my one good leg enough to where I can keep up during sets in practice and I don't have to go in my own lane and do my own thing. I want to be competent enough in every area to swim with everybody else." (evansvilleliving.com, 15 Jun 2019)

FAMILY SUPPORT
Her mother is a physical therapist, which has helped Mikaela as she has grown up. "She definitely knew what she was doing when she was trying to get me to walk and keeping me on schedule. I think it helped set me up for having a life. It started me down a path that I could keep up with other children. It really set up that mindset which I never really thought about, until I started swimming." (championsofactivewomen.libsyn.com, 29 Jan 2020)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal
:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos