Longmont – Jordan Freeman wants you to believe he is no different from any freshman in high school. Any special attention given him, he says, is “just crazy!”
But most folks witnessing Freeman swimming the anchor leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay for the Longmont-Skyline boys team Thursday couldn’t help feeling light in the heart and tears welling in the eyes.
It’s just crazy how this boy, who contracted a form of meningitis when he was 7 months old, moves with grace from a wheelchair to the pool.
It’s just crazy how he has endured the amputation of much of his right arm and 122 surgeries, but none has removed his indomitable spirit and desire to be treated the same as his classmates.
On Thursday, Freeman’s grandparents and legal guardians, Jon and Eileen McLean, got their first glimpse of him competing in a swim meet. He made a splash by entering the pool on a water slide.
“I’m speechless,” Eileen said as she fought back tears. “It was just wonderful to see him do that. … I won’t miss another one.”
Freeman’s first competitive meet came two weeks ago in the Northern League Relays at Thompson Valley’s Dick Hewson Aquatic Center in Loveland.
“I was really nervous once I had my first meet, but after that I was totally cool with it,” Freeman said.
Those in attendance rose as one to cheer him on.
“It was insane, just insane,” Freeman recalled. “Once I was halfway through that first 50 yards I was just smiling so much I couldn’t breathe.”
At 4 feet, 130 pounds, Freeman, 15, swims to the beat of his fellow swimmers.
“In swimming we have something called the clap,” Thompson Valley coach Steve Foster said. “It is usually reserved for the last kid in the pool, and starts in unison with a slow clap and gets faster as he gets closer to the finish. With Jordan, that’s just a full-on standing ovation.”
A black morning awakening
Freeman was born a perfectly healthy boy, but one morning when he was 7 months old his mother woke him for his 6 a.m. bottle and noticed black spots all over his body.
“She rushed him to the hospital right away, Longmont United Hospital,” Eileen McLean said. “The doctors there recognized that it was something serious and put him on Flight for Life and took him to Children’s Hospital in Denver.”
By the time Freeman arrived, a form of meningitis – called meningococcal toxemia – was in full attack mode. The bacterial infection in his bloodstream had turned his arms and legs black.
“If he would have been five minutes later arriving, he wouldn’t have made it,” McLean said.
The condition and the steps needed to help Jordan initially were a mystery. Word of an experimental drug used in Missouri made its way to his doctors.
“It saved his life,” McLean said.
But his survival came with a price. Freeman spent the next three months in the Children’s Hospital burn unit. His skin, which is delicate and susceptible to infection, was the focus of most of his surgeries.
Within years, Freeman would have his right arm partially amputated and the growth plates in the rest of his limbs removed. It could have been worse – one in five people who contract the infection dies.
Painful skin grafts have taken a toll, especially on his back. His latest trip to the surgeon came in December when doctors patched a wound near his left ankle. By the time swimming season arrived last month, he was healed enough to try out for the team.
Coach Barb Hillstrom, who had been Freeman’s physical education teacher and taught him swimming at Skyline High School last fall, encouraged him to come out. Hillstrom and Marie Huff share coaching duties for the Longmont-Skyline co-op team, formed because the two schools didn’t have enough swimmers to field individual teams.
“I remember asking Coach Hillstrom if it was too late to join the swim team,” Freeman said. “And once she told me I could, I was just so excited.”
Scraping the pool remains a concern, but otherwise Freeman’s caregivers have encouraged him to get in the flow.
“Once his skin was healed up, he was good to go,” said Dennis Matthews, a doctor in charge of Jordan’s rehabilitation at Children’s Hospital. “My job is to make him into a butterfly, so that he can go out and explore the world.”
Making a splash with team
Freeman was concerned about how his teammates and fans would react to seeing him in the water.
“He was cautious, but only because he probably didn’t feel like he would fit in,” Hillstrom said.
Freeman’s gregarious personality helped alleviate any issues. On the first day of practice, Freeman motored his chair to each lane of the six-lane Centennial Pool and chatted with every swimmer.
“Barb told me about him, and I just didn’t know what to expect,” Huff said. “The first day, I was just blown away – amazed at how he could move around in the water that well.”
Freeman isn’t about to set any records, but is constantly exploring ways to improve, such as getting a quicker start. He has been starting in the water instead of diving out of the blocks. Once he gets going, his strong shoulders and constantly driving feet propel him.
He usually swims the anchor legs of the 200-yard medley relay and 200 freestyle relay, and competes individually in the 50 freestyle. He normally finishes 2 lengths of the pool in about 1 minute, 25 seconds while a typical high school swimmer might complete that distance in 25 seconds.
“He’s always concerned about his times,” Hillstrom said.
“Jordan does everything that normal people do, he just does it a little bit different,” said Jimmy Bridge, one of Freeman’s best friends and a fellow Skyline freshman. “It’s just nice to watch him swim, because when he gets out of the pool, his face just lights up.”
The faces of those watching him light up, too.
“It’s unbelievable how a group of kids can come together and support him that way,” McLean said.
Freeman would have you believe he’s no role model, that he’s just doing what any other kid would do. But that’s just crazy.
“I like to consider myself just like everyone else, and don’t think that I can only do half as much as anybody else because I have one arm or half-length legs,” he said.
Foster doesn’t hesitate pointing to Freeman when one of his swimmers is struggling.
“I’ve had a couple of instances when guys were nervous to swim an event or choking on water, and I’ve just told them they have no right to complain,” Foster said. “When you look at Jordan, and the constant energy he brings with everything he does, that really puts a lot of things into perspective.”
Freeman dreams of mentoring children with special needs and competing in the Paralympics someday.
“He may be small, but he dreams big,” Bridge said.
Staff writer Jon E. Yunt can be reached at 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com.
