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Evansville native Mikaela Jenkins wins 2 gold medals at Paralympics

The 18-year-old finished first in the 100-meter butterfly - S10 and 4x100-meter medley relay - 34 points swimming events in Tokyo.

TOKYO, Japan — Evansville native Mikaela Jenkins is a two-time gold medalist.

The 18-year-old finished first in the 100-meter butterfly - S10 swimming event at the Tokyo Paralympics Tuesday, Aug. 31 with a time of 1:07.52, which was 0.32 seconds faster than the silver medalist from Australia.

On Thursday, Jenkins joined Team USA's 4x100-meter medley relay - 34 points team to win another gold medal with a time of 4:52.40, which was 3.15 seconds faster than silver medalists RPC. Jenkins swam her lap in 1:24.52.

According to Team USA, Jenkins was born with left proximal femoral focal deficiency and underwent a left Syme's amputation when she was 8 months old. 

Jenkins was fitted with her first prosthesis when she was just a year old and learned to walk independently a few months later. She started swimming at the age of 4 and got competitive at age 8. 

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Jenkins previously finished in eighth place in the finals of the women's 100-meter breaststroke - SB9 with a time of 1:23.89.

The Evansville Reitz swimmer who trains with the Newburg Sea Creatures club team finished fourth in her Wednesday heat of the women's 100-meter backstroke - S10. 

Jenkins closed her Tokyo schedule with a 7th place finish in the women's 200-meter individual medley - SM10 on Friday, Sept. 3.

According to the Paralympics, the sport class names in swimming consist of a prefix "S" or “SB” and a number. The prefixes stand for the strokes and the number indicates the sport classes. There are 10 different sport classes for athletes with physical impairment, numbered 1-10. The lower the number, the more severe the activity limitation.

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