Ashley Owens, of the United States, right, celebrates her gold medal in the Women's 100-meter freestyle S10 with teammate Susan Beth Scott at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in Beijing. (Greg Baker/Associated Press)

Susan Beth Scott, the Cape Girardeau teen who spent the past year at the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, has begun competing in the 2008 Paralympic Games, which began Saturday in Beijing.

Scott finished fourth earlier today (Tuesday) in the women's 100-meter freestyle (S10 division). Her time was 1:02.33, while winner Ashley Owens set a world record in a time of 1:01.57.

Scott, who was a high school state-meet qualifier as a freshman at Cape Central during the 2006-07 school year, had posted a personal best (by about two seconds) of 1:02.93 during the preliminaries to get the No. 2 seed for the final.

She competed earlier in the week in the women's 100 butterfly, where she placed sixth.

"It feels good to represent my country and I'm honored to be here," Scott said in a news release from the USOC.

The swimming events continue through Monday, Sept. 15.

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The other Paralympic athlete with Southeast Missouri ties, Jill Kennedy, does not begin competing until Saturday, Sept. 13.

Kennedy is a shot put and discus specialist who was raised in Zalma and graduated from Southeast Missouri State.

She spent Friday, Sept. 5, visiting the Great Wall of China, about an hour by bus from the Olympic Village.

"Absolutely amazing. I took about 400 pictures," Kennedy wrote. "The view is fantastic, the wall is incomprehensible."

Kennedy said she got a bit of a workout, as her photos show her at a portion of the wall that features an incline. She also said the stairs of the wall were "uneven in both width and height. Building codes were lax."

One day after her arrival in China (on Tuesday, Sept. 2), she spent Wednesday, Sept. 3, checking out the Olympic Village's International Zone of shops, post office, then practicing at a facility about 30 minutes from the village, and undergoing testing for the World Anti-Doping Agency.