Celebrating the Contribution of Black Swimmers and Aquatics Advocates
Simone Manuel
First and foremost, check out the vital work that DIVERSITY IN AQUATICS has been doing for years. Meow Meow Foundation has agreed to donate life jackets and swimming lessons in honor of the organization and its mission to afford opportunities and resources to those who are historically under-served.
Despite the extraordinary challenges that the following heroes faced, take a look at these accomplishments from Black, Latinx/Hispanic and Asian aquatics superstars.
Former Ambassador to the United Nations and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young was the first Black person to receive the International Swimming Hall Of Fame Gold Medallion Award. He swam at Howard University in the 1950s.
The first black swimmer to score in an NCAA Championship final was Nate Clark, an Ohio State sophomore who finished fifth in the 200 yard butterfly at the 1962 NCAA Championships.
In 1971, Jim Ellis formed the first all-Black swim team located in Nicetown, Pennsylvania. His program at the Marcus Foster pool has sent swimmers to the swimming trials for every U.S. Olympic team since 1992.
The first black swimmer to make a U.S. national team was Chris Silva of Los Angeles and UCLA, who was a member of the World University Games in Edmonton, Canada, in 1982.
In 1988, Sybil Smith became the first black female swimmer to score in an NCAA final.
Anthony Nesty became the first male swimmer of African descent to win an NCAA Div. I Championship from 1990-92.
Maritza Correia (McCLendon) was the first Black American to set an American and world swimming record, and the first female Black Olympic swimmer to join the U.S. team.
In 2006, Cullen Jones of Newark, NJ and North Carolina State became the first Black swimmer to hold a world record.
Lia Neal, the daughter of a Chinese-American mother and African-American father, is the first Black woman to swim an Olympic final for the United States as she helped win a Bronze for Team USA in the 4x100 freestyle relay in 2012. She also won a Silver medal as part of the US 2016 team. She co-founded Swimmers for Change as a means for bringing the swimming community together in support of Black communities and creating change in the swimming community.
Yet, as CBS News reported, four-time Olympic medalist Simone Manuel says she still sometimes feels excluded as a Black swimmer.
The only barriers that Black swimmers should face are the ones that divide their lane from the lanes of their competitors. Black lives matter outside of the pool and inside. Support them. And support the efforts of organizations such as Diversity in Aquatics for all of the important work that they do year after year.