black swimmers

Good story. I always dread the stories on every warm holiday in which one or more people drown at local lakes. I have often thought that it would be great if the local high school or USAS teams could sponsor a weekend program to at least try to drown proof some of the kids who would not otherwise have access to lessons. Maybe Masters teams could do something similar for adults. Sadly we just had drowning at a local pond where the bottom drops from four feet to eighteen feet without any warning. The victim was from the city and was a non swimmer. Having grown up in the borough of the Bronx we had very few kids in the area who had access to pools and in my opinion it was due largely because of economic reasons. Inner city youth have limited resources and their only outlet is either on the courts or on the field. That said Cullen Jones has made it a mission to expose as many kids as possible to the water and give them a leg up on the basics. (By the way Anthony Ervin is also African American and he too is involved as a youth advocate for the sport.) Not sure if anyone noticed the 100 free finals at our recent Olympic Trials but Lia Neal (of NYC and AGUA) who just turned seventeen, made the team for the 4 x 100 relay. She came in fourth just ahead of Natalie Coughlin. At 13 years old she smashed the national record in the 100 meter free which stood for 23 years...along with a new 50 meter free record (25.8). www.nytimes.com/.../us-olympic-swimming-trials-lia-neal-reflects-teams-diversity.html sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../content.13.html

Good story. I always dread the stories on every warm holiday in which one or more people drown at local lakes. I have often thought that it would be great if the local high school or USAS teams could sponsor a weekend program to at least try to drown proof some of the kids who would not otherwise have access to lessons. Maybe Masters teams could do something similar for adults. Sadly we just had drowning at a local pond where the bottom drops from four feet to eighteen feet without any warning. The victim was from the city and was a non swimmer. Having grown up in the borough of the Bronx we had very few kids in the area who had access to pools and in my opinion it was due largely because of economic reasons. Inner city youth have limited resources and their only outlet is either on the courts or on the field. That said Cullen Jones has made it a mission to expose as many kids as possible to the water and give them a leg up on the basics. (By the way Anthony Ervin is also African American and he too is involved as a youth advocate for the sport.) Not sure if anyone noticed the 100 free finals at our recent Olympic Trials but Lia Neal (of NYC and AGUA) who just turned seventeen, made the team for the 4 x 100 relay. She came in fourth just ahead of Natalie Coughlin. At 13 years old she smashed the national record in the 100 meter free which stood for 23 years...along with a new 50 meter free record (25.8). www.nytimes.com/.../us-olympic-swimming-trials-lia-neal-reflects-teams-diversity.html sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../content.13.html