Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer Cullen Jones Visits Site of Swimming Tragedy

USA SWIMMING FOUNDATION AND OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST CULLEN JONES TO VISIT SHREVEPORT, LA ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10

Shreveport visit is part of “Make a Splash with Cullen Jones,” a six-city event series designed to raise awareness about the importance of learning to swim

Colorado Springs, CO, November 2, 2010 – Following the tragic drowning deaths of six teenagers this summer in Shreveport, LA, Cullen Jones and the USA Swimming Foundation will visit the community on Wednesday, November 10 to advocate for water safety education, raise awareness about the importance of learning to swim, and help develop life-saving learn to swim programs in the region.

The USA Swimming Foundation and Cullen Jones have been traveling the country for two years as part of a nationwide water safety campaign, “Make a Splash with Cullen Jones.” The series of events is sponsored by ConocoPhillips and works to educate children, families and community leaders on the importance of learning to swim. The Make a Splash initiative, through its nearly 300 local partner programs, offers free or low cost swimming lessons in hundreds of cities across the country.

In Shreveport, Cullen will talk with the local community about life-saving learn to swim programs, his personal story of near-drowning and what it took for him to later become an Olympic champion. He will also speak directly to hundreds of children at a youth assembly and then give a swim lesson as part of the team’s efforts to shine a light on water safety.

Drowning continues to be a major problem in the U.S, especially among minority youth. According to a recent study* by USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis, 70% (seven out of ten) of African American children and 58% of Hispanic children report low to no swimming ability, putting them at an increased risk of drowning. The number one factor impacting a child’s ability to swim was reported as fear.

As a near victim of drowning at the age of five and now an Olympic gold medalist swimmer, Cullen Jones is a passionate spokesperson on these issues. His efforts, along with USA Swimming Foundation and ConocoPhillips, have resulted in major growth for Make a Splash since its inception in 2007. So far, there have been 563,000 enrollments in lessons at 285 Make a Splash local partner programs in 43 states. In addition, nearly 22,500 children have received lessons thanks to scholarships. The USA Swimming Foundation was also able to present $50,000 in total grant dollars to a variety of swim programs in 2009 and $100,000 in total grant dollars in 2010.

“Make a Splash with Cullen Jones” will make its last stop this year in New York on Friday, November 19.


About Make a Splash
Make a Splash is a national child-focused anti-drowning initiative created by The USA Swimming Foundation, which operates by aligning the nation’s top learn-to-swim resources in an effort to save lives. Make a Splash educates parents through a national awareness campaign, saves lives by joining forces with grassroots learn-to-swim programs and reaches thousands of children across the country. The program exists because nine people drown each day in the U.S., and in ethnically-diverse communities the youth drowning rate is 2-3 times higher. For more information, visit makeasplash.org.

About the USA Swimming Foundation

The USA Swimming Foundation was established in 2004 with the purpose of using the sport of swimming to improve lives and make communities stronger. The Foundation focuses its resources in three main areas: making children safer in and around the water to reduce drowning; encouraging diversity in the sport of swimming; and using swimming to promote a healthy lifestyle to combat issues such as childhood obesity. The USA Swimming Foundation is the premier charitable organization that supports the sport of swimming in the United States from grassroots to gold medals and is recognized as a national leadership organization for promoting water safety. It is the Foundation’s ongoing goal to teach every child in America how to swim. To help, to donate or for information: www.swimfoundation.org.

Confessions of a Black Swim Parent

You Don't Have to Compete, Just Learn How to Swim

Confessions of a BSP: A Black Swim Parent
by Mark Anthony Neal

The Mecklenburg Aquatic Center, site of the North Carolina 14-and-under Swimming Championships is located on the east end of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd in Charlotte, NC. More than a mile away, on the west end of the boulevard, sits Johnson C. Smith College, a historically Black college.

The distance between the two institutions, both located on a thoroughfare named after a figure who personified the collapsing of racial boundaries in this country, is an apt metaphor for the lack of visibility of Blacks in the sport of swimming. With the exception of events like the National Black Heritage Championships Meet, the lack of a significant presence of black swimmers at competitive swim meets is a regular occurrence; a reality that is not surprising, given a recent report sponsored by USA Swimming that nearly 70 percent of Black teen and children surveyed possess little or no swimming skills—a number that was nearly twice the amount of their White peers.

Some of the reasons Black swimming rates are thought to be low are obvious. Finances and access to facilities remain primary concerns, though organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs, The Y and Make A Splash, an organization funded by USA Swimming, have made herculean efforts to make swim lessons affordable (free in some cases). Even the issue of access was ultimately deemed less of an issue in the USA Swimming report as many of the respondents reported having access to local pools, including public ones.

What was far more of a concern as related to access was the issue of physical safety—some public facilities draw the presence of a criminal element, particularly in poor neighborhoods (the same element that one might find at a local basketball court, though that doesn’t keep folk from the courts). Many Black children and young teens are simply afraid to go to public facilities by themselves, preferring to be accompanied by a parent or another adult.

Not surprisingly parents hold the biggest key as to whether black youth will learn to swim or decide to take on the sport competitively. According to USA Swimming’s report parental fear of their children drowning outweighs even monetary concerns about swimming. As one parent surveyed states, “you’re already uncomfortable and scared. You’re like ‘I’m paying them so I can have heart palpitations on the side lines’…why should I have to pay money to be afraid.”

Read the Full Essay @ theloop21.com

70% Of Black Children at Risk of Drowning

News Release from USA Swimming

Approximately 70% of African American Children Report Low or No Swimming Ability Putting Them At Risk of Drowning

2010 Study commissioned by USA Swimming finds fear, lack of parental encouragement and personal appearance among major factors preventing children from learning to swim

Colorado Springs, CO, June 11, 2010 – As the summer season begins and pools and beaches are open across the country, a recent study commissioned by USA Swimming and conducted by the University of Memphis exposes some alarming statistics. The Constraints Impacting Minority Swimming Participation, Phase II study found that nearly 70% of African American children have low or no swim ability, compared to 40% of Caucasians, putting them at risk for drowning. According to the study, parental fear is a major contributor impacting a child’s swimming ability.

Fear Trumps Finance as a Major Factor

The “fear of drowning” was found to be the strongest overall predictor of swim ability. Other issues impacting African American families included lack of parental encouragement and personal appearance issues, more specifically the notion that chlorine is bad for African American skin and hair. Other issues reported (but to a lesser degree) included financial constraints and access to pools.

While the study revealed children from lower income families* were more inclined to agree that “family budget doesn’t include money for me to take swim lessons,” focus group research found that many parents wouldn’t let kids swim even if lessons were free, a theme that was tested four times in different focus groups. Overall, fear trumped financial concerns across all respondents from low-income families.

40% of All Children Surveyed Said They Are Able to Swim While Only 18% of Total Respondents Have Taken Lesson From Certified Instructor

Results from the study show that while 40% of all children surveyed report they are able to swim, only 18% have ever taken a swim lesson from a certified instructor. When asked how they learned to swim, 26% of African American children responded, “I taught myself.” This false sense of confidence can lead to tragedy, as 60% of children with low or now swim ability plan to be in and around the water this summer at least once a month.

The Constraints Impacting Minority Swimming Participation, Phase II study was conducted by the University of Memphis between February 1, 2010 and May 26, 2010 and surveyed more than 2,000 children and parents in six cities across the U.S, including Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Memphis, Minneapolis and San Diego. The study is a follow up to Phase I conducted in 2008, which exposed the issues and served as a catalyst for widespread awareness of minority children’s low swimming ability. The purpose of the current study was to more clearly understand children’s true swim abilities and determine which factors most impact whether or not a child learns to swim.

The end goal is to create real solutions designed to ensure children are water safe, especially minority youth who are at a higher risk for drowning. The USA Swimming Foundation, African American Olympic gold medalist swimmer Cullen Jones and Make a Splash are teaming up again this summer to educate parents and kids about the importance of learning to swim and the resources available for families in need, and will utilize the information from the findings as they travel the country as part of a six city event series. Make a Splash is the national water safety initiative created by the USA Swimming Foundation in an effort to provide access to swim lessons at low or no cost for children across the country.

“I didn’t learn how to swim to become an Olympic champion,” said Jones. “I learned how to swim, because when I was five years old, I almost drowned. The findings from this study reinforce the importance of why I’m traveling the country this summer to talk to parents and kids about the importance of learning to swim as a life-saving skill. I really believe we can make a difference in the statistics and save lives.”

Read the Full Study Here

Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet Showcases Kids’ Skills

Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet Showcases Kids’ Skills
by Mark Anthony Neal

The venue was not like any other you might find throughout the country; Late spring at an aquatic center filled with hundreds of kids competing in swimming events. But this was not like any other event. Of the more than 700 competitors, ranging from age 5 to age 19, the vast majority were Black. And the sounds of the swim meet were different also, feeling more like half-time at an HBCU football game, than the usual staid and reserved demeanor found at most swim meets. This was the 8th Annual Black Heritage National Swim Championships, which was held during the Memorial Day holiday weekend at the Triangle Aquatics Center in Cary, North Carolina.

Swimming is not a sport where folk immediately think of a significant Black presence. In fact, one of the dominant stereotypes of Blacks is that they can’t swim, a point that events like the Black Heritage National Championship meet disproves, but nonetheless as a 2008 survey by USA Today detailed, nearly 60 percent of Black children don’t know how to swim (twice the rate of their White peers) and are nearly three times more likely to drown than their White counterparts. These were all issues considered when Kathy Cooper and a group of parents decided to found the Black Heritage National Championship Meet more than eight years ago.

Read the Full Article @ NewsOne.com

Cullen Jones Speaks

2008 Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones swam on the now-legendary 400m freestyle relay in Beijing and is the first African-American to hold a world record. Usaswimming.org brings you a video interview with Jones, in which he talks about Make a Splash, what hes been up to since last summers World Championships and his training for 2010.

Nationals Men's 50 Meter Free Swim-Off: Cullen Jones Sets New American Record