A swimmer who dives right in

Diana and Kent Johannes spent nearly a month in the summer of 1995 shuttling between an orphanage in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and the office of the region's adoption officials, who couldn't understand why the couple wanted to adopt a cute little girl missing her left arm below the elbow.

The officials kept asking the same questions, and the Johanneses kept shaking their heads. Why do you want an "imperfect" child, the officials wanted to know. Are you going to sell her body parts for research?

It was impossible for the Johanneses to convince the adoption officials that they considered little Anna, then 2, a perfect, beautiful girl, but they were able at least to explain the Christian concept of caring for the poor and sick. Finally, little Anna was released.

"It was very touch-and-go," Diana Johannes said. "I was in Bishkek at least three weeks. They really did not understand."

Those officials, perhaps, would have a difficult time believing the rest of the story. As Diana Johannes sat in the rafters of the Cub Run RECenter just past 6 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning, her daughter Anna, now 16 and a junior at Mount Vernon High, churned up the water below with the rest of the Potomac Marlins swim team. Anna had no trouble keeping up with her able-bodied teammates. In fact, in many ways, she was leaving them behind.

She will compete beginning Tuesday in Cartagena, Colombia, at the 2009 Youth Parapan American Games, an 18-and-under event that represents a major step in her quest to make the U.S. Paralympic team that will travel to London in 2012. She barely missed qualifying for the Beijing Paralympic Games just over a year ago at age 14.

"She knows where she wants this to take her," said Steve Ercolano, her coach with the Potomac Marlins. "She knows going to London in 2012 is not a pipe dream for her. It's a very realistic goal.

"She does this," Ercolano said, gesturing at the bustling pool, "to get there. She could care less whether she made the PVS [Potomac Valley Swimming] Senior Championships, other than that is part of her Paralympic goals."

But the thing is, she just might make the March 11-14 PVS Senior Championships. She frequently beats swimmers her age or older in club or high school meets, and would have competed in last weekend's October Open at the Mount Vernon RECenter if not for her trip to Colombia. Last year, she qualified for the PVS Junior Championships, but had to skip the meet because a Paralympic selection event took place at the same time.

Ercolano called her as an "outstanding" disability swimmer and a "very good local level swimmer" who likely will be a candidate for Division III swimming programs when she graduates in 2011.

"I've always just loved being in the water," Johannes said. "I never, ever think of myself as disabled . . . When I'm standing on the blocks, I think, 'I can beat her, I can beat her, I can beat her. I'm good.' "

New goals, new focus

At last year's Paralympic trials in Minneapolis, when she finished first in the 100-meter breaststroke (1 minute 38.34 seconds) and 200 individual medley (2:54.98), she decided to steer her focus from high school and club competition toward the next Paralympic Games. Though Paralympic competition forces Johannes to confront and acknowledge her differences -- "When you get there, it hits you in the face: They are disabled," she said -- it also surrounds her with peers who immediately understand her, and provides opportunities to travel and compete that she otherwise would not have.