Michael Phelps has left the Water Cube, but when Paralympians hit the pool in Beijing next month, U.S. swimming dominance shouldn’t lose a stroke.

“The 2008 U.S. Paralympic swim team may be the best we have ever fielded for a major international event,” said U.S. head coach Julie O’Neill, speaking by phone from Okinawa during the team’s final training camp. “We have many swimmers capable of winning multiple medals.”

The U.S. team, made up of 20 men and 18 women, broke 59 records (36 American, 18 Pan American, and five world records) at the Can-Am Championships in Victoria, British Columbia last weekend.

Heading into the Beijing Games, O’Neil expects stiffer competition, particularly from Great Britain, Australia, Spain and China, but says the United States is still the team to beat. “We’re the reigning world champions, and won the most medals in 2006,” she said.

Like the U.S., Great Britain’s 36-member team boasts youth and experience, from 13-year-old Eleanor Simmonds to Jim Anderson, 45, who won four gold medals at the Athens Paralympics, which the British dominated, winning 52 medals — the most by any nation.

Five British swimmers are vying to retain the gold medals won in Athens, including Hereford native Sascha Kindred, who won the S6 200-meter individual medley and the SB7 100-meter breaststroke.

Eighteen of Australia’s 35 swimmers will make their Paralympic debut: 10 others will defend medals won in Athens. The current squad has eight world-record holders, among them 19-year-old Matthew Cowdrey, a single-armed swimmer who broke three world records during Australia’s national trials.

The Chinese team boasts Zhu Hongyan, the two-time defending gold medalist in the women’s S12 100-meter backstroke. In Athens, Hongyan defeated U.S. Paralympic legend Trischa Zorn, who took the bronze, her 54th medal in eight Paralympics.

Swimming draws competitors from all five Paralympic categories: amputee, cerebral palsy, wheelchair, visually impaired and other disabilities not included in those four categories. The swimming events are among the Games’ most competitive races, though O’Neill points out, “No one event is more popular or important than any other.”

There are, however, some U.S. athletes who have achieved more than others. After winning three gold and three silver medals at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, Erin Popovich won a Spitz-ian seven gold medals in seven races four years later in Athens, setting world records in the 200-meter individual medley, the 50-meter freestyle and the 50-meter butterfly. Popovich, who was born with the bone-growth disorder achondroplasia, won a 2005 ESPY award for Best Female Athlete with a Disability.

Expectations are equally high for Jessica Long, who won three gold medals in Athens as a 12-year-old and who currently holds 15 world records.

Long set 18 world records and won nine gold medals in nine events at the 2006 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming World Championships. That same year, she became the first Paralympian to win the Amateur Athletic Union’s Sullivan Award, given to the best amateur athlete in the United States.

Long was adopted from a Siberian orphanage at 13 months. Five months later, fibular hemimelia necessitated amputation of both legs and she later learned to walk with prostheses. Her many athletic pursuits include a second-place finish in speed rock climbing at the 2006 Extremity Games.

In April 2004, Melissa Stockwell, a first lieutenant in the Army, lost her left leg to a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Next month, she will be the first Iraq war veteran to compete in the Paralympics.

Stockwell competed in rowing and diving at the University of Colorado. After her injury, she relocated to Colorado Springs to train. In just three months, she improved her world ranking in the 400 freestyle from 20th to 4th, setting an American record (5:03.08) at the Paralympic trials. Stockwell will also compete in the 100 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.

Another star of the U.S. team is Ashley Owens, who set two world records last month (200 and 400 freestyle) at the Can-Am championships. In 2006, she set a new Pan American record in the 1,500 freestyle, beating the old mark by more than 90 seconds.

Among the men, Cody Bureau, Jarrett Perry and Justin Zook are ones to watch. Bureau lost his left hand in a farming accident when he was eight and began swimming at age 11. He made U.S. Paralympic teams in 2004 and in 2007 and won eight medals at the Parapan Games in Brazil.

Perry is the defending Paralympic and World Championship gold medalist and world record holder in the 100 backstroke. He lost a leg in infancy to Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome.

Zook has been swimming since age seven. He competed in the 1998 IPC World Championships at age 12, and next month, he will defend his 2004 Paralympic gold medal in the 100 backstroke.

Dave Denniston was NCAA champion in the 200 breaststroke in 1999 when he swam for Auburn. He was a 2004 Olympic hopeful who narrowly missed making the team. A 2005 sledding accident left Dave a paraplegic and he will compete at the elite level as a Paralympian in Beijing.

The swimming competition at the Beijing Paralympics begins September 7th and ends Sept. 15.

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