ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Jack O’Neil, a former student at Rockford’s Spectrum Progressive School, will be swimming in the Paris Paralympics on Saturday.
A former student at Spectrum Progressive School at 4848 Turner Street, O’Neil has been swimming since he was 7 years old.
At age 9, his leg was amputated due to a birth defect.
His early elementary teacher, Jacque Lind, said, “We’d go out on the playground and he’d be the one on the top of the monkey bars. And so I was nervous and worried, and I called his mom and she just kind of laughed and said ‘that’s just Jack. Let him do it.’ So we knew he was gonna do great things.”
O’Neil is also an accomplished triathlete.
Currently, he attends the University of Wyoming, swimming on its Division One team.
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