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.
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.
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