NANTERRE, France – The day before Jessica Long flew to Paris for her sixth Paralympic Games, she got a phone call.

On the other line was the legendary Michael Phelps.

Long and Phelps, both from Baltimore, are friends, training partners, and two of the most decorated swimmers of all time.

“He talked to me for an hour,” she said. “He gave me some incredible advice.”

She declined to say what the advice was, but clearly, it helped her power through.

At age 32, Long took home two more gold medals, her 17th and 18th, in Paris. On Saturday night, she chased down Great Britain’s Alice Tai in the 100m butterfly S8 final to the delight of a roaring crowd.

“That (win) just blew my mind,” Long said. “I started with a sixth and a fourth place, so it’s a testament to how I reset, but it’s also a testament to my coach Patrick McCloskey, because he started working with butterfly on me just in June.”

Racing so much in a short period of time, eight different swims over the last eight days, has taken a toll on Long. No longer the prodigal 12 year old who took the Games by storm 20 years ago, she leans on her experience.

“Alice (Tai) and I were talking in the call room about how tired we were,” she said. “The thing that gave me the confidence was that I’ve done this schedule in Tokyo, and I just knew that I was the one that did it in Tokyo, and I actually swam three more events there and finished with the gold medal. So it feels really good to defend it.”

Also bothered by pain in her back, Long’s expectations were low, but she lived up to the standard that she has set for herself.

She couldn’t see out of her goggles, but it didn’t matter.

“I had no idea where anyone was,” she said. “So when I touched the wall and you see me quickly turn, I was like ‘I won?’ I had no idea. It was amazing.”

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Mallory Weggemann is a four-time Paralympian and a four-time gold medalist, but for the first time, she can share her experience at the Games with somebody new.

In March 2023, she and her husband Jeremy welcomed baby Charlotte into the world.

In February 2024, she wrote in her journal that “retirement should be a conversation.”

Seven months later, with Jeremy and Charlotte in the stands cheering her on, she added two medals to her collection in Paris.

After her gold last week, she swam to silver in the 50m butterfly S7 at La Defense Arena, more than a second behind Canadian Danielle Dorris.

“Motherhood is a comma, not a period,” Weggemann said. “Far too often, athletics careers seem to have this misconception that they come to an end when motherhood enters that phase of your life, and it’s just not true.”

Swimming in lane five, she could look over to her side and see another mother just a few feet over. Guilia Terzi of Italy gave birth to her son Edoardo around the same time that Weggemann was considering retirement.

On Saturday night, they stood on the podium together, holding silver and bronze. While their children are too young to truly understand their mothers’ talents, the impact goes far beyond that.

“She will (remember it) through photos and videos and stores,” Weggemann explained. “I hope what she remembers most about this is just the tenacity of fighting for your dreams and fighting for what you love. Whatever it is that Charlotte dreams to be in this world, I just hope that she’s been able to see through example that you can be whatever it is that you’re courageous enough to dream possible.”

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Ellie Marks knew her 100m backstroke S6 world record wouldn’t last very long.

As she celebrated her gold medal and world record three years ago in Tokyo, 16 year old Yuyan Jiang stood next to her with her silver medal.

Marks, 31 at the time and an established veteran of the sport, understood that Jiang would soon take over the division. The Chinese prodigy won three golds at the world championships in 2019, and added two in Tokyo two years later.

“She knew that I wanted to be in the pool for when she did it,” Marks said. “She’s just very talented… she’s 15 years younger than me, so it’s easy to celebrate.”

Saturday happened to be that special night, and Marks’ wish came true.

In the midst of a historic Games in which she already had six gold medals, Jiang broke the record by .13 seconds. Marks finished nearly a full second behind, claiming silver.

As fate would have it, the two were swimming next to each other.

“I never know what the score is at the end,” Marks said as emotion poured out. “So she let me know, and gave me a big hug. that was very special.”

Jiang’s emergence as an unstoppable force in the sport meant that Marks wasn’t able to pick up a gold medal at these Games despite her five silvers.

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Team USA also took home the bronze in the mixed 4x100m freestyle (34 points), bringing the final medal tally from the pool to 30 (10 gold, 17 silver, three bronze).