hi all, I'm writing from Italy. Hope not to be politically incorrect, you know, sometimes one uses wrong expressions which may be offensive without knowing it - English is not my language.
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My question: has someone understood why there are no black swimmers at the top of the world rankings? is there a physiologic reason? Thank you Antonio
I think that has changed a lot in the last few decades. Most cities now really concentrate on providing recreation facilities in poorer areas. Not to say there aren't exceptions, but I'll betcha these days most major cities have nice public pools available in neighborhoods with high concentrations of minorities. The next step is getting the families in these areas to use the pools and to sign their kids up for swim lessons. In my personal experience it's working. I swim at a public pool in a fairly well off area of the city. I would say at least half the kids I see taking lessons are minorities. Muslims seem to be especially proactive in signing their children up for lessons.
In the Wenatchee area, I've noticed at the three swimming facilities that a large % of the kids in the swim lessons this summer are hispanic. Part of this could be because of the multiple recent drownings over the past year in the Wenatchee area that have got significant news coverage. 4 drownings, all 4 being hispanic. 1 in the H.S. pool during class, 1 in a motel pool (unguarded), and the other two in the river or lake (also unguarded). Out of my son's swim lesson class, all are hispanic...my son included. He's 50/50, but we always claim hispanic on all information sheets. You never know when it'll give him an advantage sometime in the future.
I always wondered what it'd be like to have swimming in gym. Do they even do that anymore? Seems like a lot of time, money, and potential issues (ex. Fat kid's parents sueing the school for making him wear a being suit or whatever other nonsense happens these days)
As teenagers, we (boys) had swimming as part of gym class in school, a generation ago, but it was a free swim (recreational, completely disorganized and without any instruction or drills, etc.). Fun, but largely a waste of time, and a huge missed opportunity to teach/learn/accomplish something useful and important. Like Karl S., we swam nude during gym class--that was the custom for males then--so swimsuits weren't an issue, but you could be right; in today's litigious culture a local school board might get sued for asking a kid to wear a bathing suit during school hours, not to mention the fact that if little Johnny just doesn't want to do something, well that might constitute another reason to run to court or at least fire the teacher, principal and superintendent. But that nonsense doesn't necessarily turn a good idea (or at least an intriguing idea) into a bad idea.
The college I attended required all undergraduate students, male and female, to pass a very basic swim test before they could get a bachelor's degree, but that requirement went the way of the dinosaurs the year I graduated. (I read that the college swim test had been a common requirement at many New England colleges--and maybe elsewhere--throughout the 20th century, inspired by the drowning on the Titanic of a non-swimmer Harvard student (Widener, for whom the library is named), not that being a swimmer would have helped him that much.
The issue of whether swimming should be taught somewhere in the educational system is a very good question. Ideally, it ought to be introduced earlier, for example in elementary school, before many kids develop a fear of water and when kids seem to learn easier and retain better what they've learned. I think the biggest challenge would be financial: most public schools do not have pools (as far as I know), and building them would probably be cost-prohibitive. (The only reason we had swimming as part of gym class was because our school was so old it had no gymnasium, so boys had their gym classes at a nearby YMCA that also had a pool.) On the other hand, what is the value of the lives that might be saved, not to mention improved and extended through healthier lifestyles resulting from having learned an activity that one can engage in regardless of age, especially in view of the huge amounts of money that governments waste on so many things?
www.foxsports.com.au/.../story-fn5k3iok-1226430524535
Bryant spent time signing autographs and posing for photos before asking for a few mementos himself.
The LA Lakers shooting guard asked Stephanie Rice to sign a swimming cap for his two daughters, who are passionate about their swimming.
The Boston Globe - Thursday, July 26, 2012
Mandatory swimming lessons a lifeline in Boston
The Boys & Girls Club of Boston is nearly one year into an initiative requiring all members to take swim lessons. The program, launched last fall, is part of an aggressive approach to combat child drowning deaths — especially among the city’s black and Hispanic children, who are at a significantly higher risk of drowning. The approach taken by the Boys & Girls Club of Boston mirrors efforts nationwide to increase swimming rates among children of color.
www.bostonglobe.com/.../story.html
Cullen Jones just took 2 nd in the 50 free at the Olympics.:applaud::banana:
WoooHOOOO! I was so happy he beat Cielo for the silver. :cheerleader: I was ticked off at NBC, though, for doing a big feature story on Cielo, talking a bit about Ervin, then introducing Cullen as "the other American..." :bitching: Whaaaaat? And, Cullen ended up beating Ervin. :banana:
I'm happy for Cullen; he is taking home some nice hardware after his 50 and relays. :bliss:
