Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley may be close to achieving longtime athletic dream

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Christie Raleigh Crossley was watching a documentary recently in which basketball star Sue Bird mentioned how every time she was selected to Team USA for the Olympics, she felt like a kid again.

When the scene was over, Raleigh Crossley paused her TV and cried. She thought about the injuries, the surgeries and the impairments that rendered impossible her childhood Olympic dream. Later, though, came a sense of peace. “I wasn’t sitting there going, ‘I’m never going to be an Olympian,’” she said.

This week in the Freeman Aquatics Center at the University of Minnesota, Raleigh Crossley has instead set her sights on reaching the biggest stage in adaptive athletics with victories at the U.S. Paralympic swim trials. A trip to Paris for the 2024 Paralympics could finally fulfill her ambition.

Raleigh Crossley’s dream of being an Olympic swimmer began at age 9, watching the Atlanta Games. The native of Toms River, New Jersey, had an ability in the water that landed her at Florida State, where she won the ACC Freshman of the Year award and was named an All-American twice.

But accidents in 2007 and then 2008 hurt her badly. In the first, Raleigh Crossley sustained back and neck injuries from a car crash in which she was hit by a drunken driver. The following year, she was the victim of a pedestrian hit-and-run and sustained a brain injury.

Still, Raleigh Crossley won a Division III national title at Rowan University before her college eligibility was exhausted.

Through her collegiate career and beyond, the aspiration to be an Olympian never wavered. But after training with Michael Phelps and other swimmers returning from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Raleigh Crossley decided to start a family – she now has three children.

Raleigh Crossley began to think about one more shot at Olympic qualifying, but in December 2018 she experienced partial paralysis from a brain tumor. After surgery, she returned to the pool to prepare for the 2020 trials, only to find she had no control over her left arm when swimming. Her quest for Tokyo was abandoned after just 50 meters in the water.

Raleigh Crossley watched the Tokyo Paralympics from her home and was intrigued by the commentary of former Paralympic swimmer Michelle Konkoly. She called Konkoly’s coach, Paul Yetter, shortly thereafter and asked if she could simply avoid using her nonfunctioning arm while in the water.

“He was like, ‘it could work,’” Raleigh Crossley recalled of their conversation. “My entire para career, I’ve trained with just one arm."

Raleigh Crossley began working toward getting to Paris two years ago. A few American records and a 100-meter backstroke world championship later, she seems likely to claim a spot when the U.S. para-swim team is announced on Sunday. Through Friday she had won both the 100-meter backstroke and 100-meter freestyle in her class at the Paralympic trials.

Every Paralympian has a story behind why they are in the Games. Raleigh Crossley has the unusual perspective of a decorated career as an able-bodied swimmer before competing in para events.

“There’s muscle memory, that left arm will do whatever,” Raleigh Crossley noted of her new swimming style. “But if I focus on my right (arm), then I know that that side at least is where my power is.”

Raleigh Crossley’s coach, Wilma Wong, has worked with several Paralympic swimmers.

“Every human has a part of their body that is not equal,” Wong said. “You’re always working with some sort of discrepancy, it’s just that the discrepancy is a little bit bigger when someone has a physical impairment.”

Raleigh Crossley acknowledged that the adjustment to one-armed swimming was a massive mental block to navigate. “In the past, I have been a little stubborn and hard-headed,” she admitted. “It was taking other people going, ‘I don’t think that’s what’s working best, try this,’ and going, ‘I’m going to trust in you on that.’”

At age 37, it all seems to be coming together physically for Raleigh Crossley. Emotionally, it’s still a journey. She said the proximity of her lifelong goal only really set in for her when swimming in her first preliminary round at the trials on Thursday.

“In the warm down pool, I told my coach, ‘I’m going to do a 500 (meter),’ she said. “I’ve got tears to cry.”

Jack Rachinsky is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Christie Raleigh Crossley swims during the women's 100 freestyle at the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Swim Team Trials in Minneapolis on Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jackson Ranger)

Christie Raleigh Crossley waits on the block before swimming the Women's 100 freestyle at the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Swim Team Trials in Minneapolis, Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leighton Smithwick)

Christie Raleigh Crossley raises her hand before swimming the Women's 100 freestyle at the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Swim Team Trials in Minneapolis, Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leighton Smithwick)

Christie Raleigh Crossley swims the Women's 100 freestyle at the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Swim Team Trials in Minneapolis, Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leighton Smithwick)

Christie Raleigh Crossley talks with her coach at the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Swim Team Trials in Minneapolis, Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leighton Smithwick)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Top California Democrats announced Sunday they will ask voters to approve a plan cracking down on retail theft.

The plan is an effort to compete with another crime-focused measure backed by a coalition of business groups that lawmakers said would result in more people being put behind bars. Both proposals would include make shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increase penalties for fentanyl dealers.

Under the retailers’ plan, any prior theft-related convictions, even if they happened years ago, would count toward a three-strike policy for increased sentences. Lawmakers also are proposing harsher punishment for repeat thieves, but the convictions would have to happen within three years of each other.

Prosecutors could aggregate the amount of all stolen goods within three years to charge harsher offenses under the Democrats' plan.

Lawmakers hope to place the measure on the ballot in November. They will vote to advance the plan and deliver it to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature before the deadline on Wednesday.

The last-minute plan is an attempt by top California Democrats to override another initiative cracking down on shoplifters and drug dealers, which is backed by a broad coalition of businesses, law enforcement and local officials.

The proposal by the business groups, which is already on the November ballot, would also make possession of fentanyl a felony and authorize judges to order those with multiple drug charges to get treatment.

Lawmakers said the change would disproportionately incarcerate low-income people and those with substance use issues rather than target ringleaders who hire large groups of people to steal goods for resale online.

Republican lawmakers blasted the Democrats' plan, with one calling it “ a sham ” to confuse voters.

The coalition of retailers and state leaders have clashed over how to crack down retail theft crimes.

The retailers' proposal would roll back parts of Proposition 47, the progressive ballot measure approved by 60% of state voters in 2014 that reduced certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors to help address overcrowding in jails. In recent years, Proposition 47 has become the focus of critics who say California is too lax on crime.

Democrat leaders, including Newsom, repeatedly rejected calls to unravel Proposition 47 or to go back to voters for crime reforms.

Democratic lawmakers were fast-tracking a legislative package of 13 bills that would go after organized online reseller schemes and auto thieves and provide funding for drug addiction counselors. State leaders planned to enact the proposals into laws as soon as this month and void the package if voters approve the business groups’ proposal in November. They abandoned that plan Saturday night.

Democrats also are concerned the retailers' tough-on-crime proposal would drive more Republicans and conservative voters to the polls in contested U.S. House races that could determine control of Congress.

Crime is shaping up to be the major political issue in California’s November’s election. San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón face tough reelection bids against challengers who have criticized their approaches to crime and punishment.

FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., May 10, 2024. Top California Democrats announced Sunday, June 30, that they will ask voters to approve a plan cracking down on retail theft. Lawmakers hope to place the measure on the ballot in November. They will vote to advance the plan and deliver it to Newsom for his signature before the deadline on Wednesday, July 3. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli,File)

FILE - Tubby, the dog of former state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, sits during a news conference organized by the Californians for Safer Communities Coalition, April 18, 2024, in Culver City, Calif. Top California Democrats announced Sunday, June 30, they will ask voters to approve a plan cracking down on retail theft. The retailers’ proposal would make stealing a felony for repeat offenders and increase punishment for fentanyl dealing. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)