Making Waves: Black Swimmers Convene for 9th Annual Black Heritage Swim Meet

Making Waves:

Black Swimmers Convene for 9th  Black Heritage Swim Meet

by Mark Anthony Neal | Black Voices (AOL/Huffington Post)

We've all read the statistics; the drowning rates of black children far exceed those of their white peers. In addition, the swimming proficiency of black children, accordingly, also lacks in comparison to their white peers; purportedly nearly 70 percent of black teens and children possess little or no swimming skills. Thanks to organizations like USA Swimming (the governing body of competitive swimming in the United States), the Make A Splash Foundation and the YMCA, there have been sustained efforts to increase swimming instruction among black children.

Yet in the backdrop of this seeming crisis, a generation of black swimmers have been making waves in competitive swimming and many of them will convene this Memorial Day weekend for the 9th Annual National Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet, at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary, North Carolina.

The Black Heritage Meet was founded in 2003 by Kathy Cooper who coaches the North Carolina Aquablazers. Cooper's daughter's Candace (now a swimmer at UNC-Chapel Hill) was a year-round competitive swimmer and Cooper was frustrated by the lack of diversity she witnessed at competitive meets. Blacks make up roughly 1 percent of all competitive swimmers, a number that only gets smaller among elite competitors.

With the Black Heritage Meet, Cooper hoped to provide a forum where young black swimmers and their parents could network. That first meet, held in Charlotte, NC attracted 104 swimmers; this year's meet will feature 896 athletes of all races, from forty-seven teams and 12 states.

The image of competitive swimming has been given a boost in black communities in recent years because of the success and visibility of Cullen Jones (pictured above), who won a gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, as part of the US Men's 200M Freestyle Relay. Jones, who nearly drowned as a child and who was a collegiate swimmer at North Carolina State University, has used his relative celebrity to get the word out about swimming safety.

Less well known are swimmers like Maritza Correia (pictured directly above), a 2004 Olympic Silver medalist and 16-year-old Lia Neal, who is the Junior National champion in the 100M Freestyle. In 2008 as a 13-year-old, Neal (along with Missy Franklin) became one of the youngest swimmers to ever qualify for the Olympic Trials.

What makes the Black Heritage Meet such an experience is not simply the opportunity to come together with other black swimmers. Cooper describes the event as more of a family reunion, where extended family often travel hundreds of miles to see their kin compete against some of the best swimmers in the country. Indeed the sights and sounds of the meet, more resemble those found any Saturday afternoon in the autumn at an HBCU football game as opposed to most swim meet which can be dry events.

As part of the weekend-long festivities, the organizers sponsor a community breakfast, which fetes black swimming pioneers, not just in competitive swimming and diving, but also in the military. Competitors are also given the chance to swim with some of their idols. Last year, both Jones and Correia were in attendance and held swim exhibitions with swimmers. This year, Sabir Muhammad (pictured below), who was a member of the U.S. National Team in the late 1990s, will be on hand.

Competitive swimming also provides great discipline of black youth, while also providing other opportunities such as working as life guards and swimming instructors. As parent Joe Artis, whose children attended last year's National Black Heritage Championship observed, "It's another opportunity besides football and basketball that swimming gives us ... you're not gonna get rich swimming, but you can get a college degree."

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Mark Anthony Neal is a professor of African-American Studies at Duke University and the author of five books including the forthcoming 'Looking For Leroy: (Il)Legible Black Masculinities.' Neal is also a "Black Swim Parent," who resides in Durham, NC with his family, where his daughters swim for the YMCA of the Triangle Area (YOTA).

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

8th Annual National Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Kathy Cooper

May 22, 2010 (919) 522-9275

kcfromnc@mindspring.com

8TH ANNUAL

NATIONAL BLACK HERITAGE CHAMPIONSHIP

RETURNS TO THE TRIANGLE AQUATIC CENTER IN CARY

CARY, NC (May 22, 2010) – World Record Holder and 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones will join 2004 Olympian Maritza Correia at the 8th Annual National Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet hosted by the North Carolina Aquablazers Swim Team, the Triangle Aquatic Center and the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau. More than 750 swimmers from across the country are expected to attend, creating an estimated economic impact of $500,000 in direct visitor spending for the area.

The swim meet will be held at the Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC), on Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday May 29th – Sunday, May 30th, 2010, with over 40 teams and more than 750 participants. Jones will be signing autographs on Sunday and swimming two 50-Free Exhibition Swims with 14 meet participants whose names will be placed in a lottery by their coaches and selected at the coaches meeting on the Friday night before the meet. 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Maritza Correia will be signing autographs and hosting 3 mini-swim clinics for meet participants on Saturday afternoon at the end of the Second Session.

Maritza will also serve as the keynote speaker at the Second Annual Community Breakfast Honoring Minority Swimming Pioneers on Friday, May 28, 2010, from 9-11 am. The breakfast is open to the general public and sponsorship and ticket information can be found on the Meet Information page of the meet website at http://blackheritageswimmng.org. Maritza will also host a Swim Clinic at TAC on Friday evening, May 28, 2010, from 7:30-8:30 pm and sign autographs from 8:30-9 pm. Registration forms for the Friday night Swim Clinic with Maritza Correia are available on the swim meet Registration page on the meet website.

The National Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet is one of the stops on the Cullen Jones National Diversity Tour. The Cullen Jones Diversity Tour was established in 2008 out of a need for the larger swim community to have a vehicle to support a diverse population of young kids. The Cullen Jones Diversity Tour hopes to better serve participants on issues such as learning to swim, drowning prevention, swim team access, swimming as an alternate choice for athletic activities and excellence, health benefits of swimming, social environments that will foster friendships for a lifetime in swimming, increase self esteem and many other topics that are of the utmost importance to the Tour's founder, Cullen Jones.

The National Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet is one of the premier minority swim meets in the United States. It’s not your typical North Carolina swim meet since most of the teams will be traveling from 12 states and Washington, DC, mostly from the eastern U.S. and some from as far away California. It’s more of a family reunion, than just a swim meet, where mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives attend with their 900 swimmers and coaches.

This marks the second year that the meet is being held at the Triangle Aquatics Center. It complements TAC’s partnership with USA Swimming’s “Make a Splash Program” and their efforts to improve minority swim statistics and reducing drowning deaths nationwide. The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (GRCVB), which coordinated the local bid effort that secured the meet, will serve as a host partner. In that capacity, GRCVB will work closely with both the Aquablazers and TAC while focusing on visitor services, hospitality, accommodations and marketing.

The Black Heritage Meet will provide a boost to the local economy on Memorial Day Weekend, a time when most Triangle Area residents head to the beach. It’s a weekend filled with fast swimming, great food and fun for all. This meet is a marquee event on the area’s sports calendar. The economic impact is estimated at $500,000 in direct visitor spending.

The Black Heritage Meet also serves a purpose. Minorities are nearly three times as likely to drown as their Caucasian counterparts. TAC is working to combat this sad statistic and has partnered with USA Swimming’s “Make A Splash” learn to swim initiative. Through “Make A Splash”, TAC is able to offer free or reduced swim lessons to many eligible children in our community. Thanks in part to a grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the Cary Community Foundation, classes have been formed and TAC is accepting registrations for group learn to swim classes for minority school-aged children, ages 5-18. Doracy Harrison, TAC Program Manager, will be working with area schools, churches, youth groups and the North Carolina Aquablazers Swim Team to register eligible children and ensure that these children are given every opportunity to learn to be safe in, on and around the water. By participating in the National Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet, these new swimmers will also get the opportunity to experience the competitive side of swimming as well.

The Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to build and operate public aquatic facilities throughout the Triangle. TAC’s first aquatic facility, at 275 Convention Drive, includes a 50 meter competition pool, a 25-yd training pool and a warm water instructional pool. The TAC facility is 72,000 sq. feet and has comfortable spectator seating capacity for 1000 people. The TAC facility has a full-service café and an All-American Swim Shop on site. The TAC facility is conveniently located off Interstate 40 at Exit 291 and is adjacent to Cary’s largest shopping mall, Cary Towne Center.

The North Carolina Aquablazers Swim Team, is a small group of diverse swimmers from North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, who, along with their parents, want to inspire more minorities to learn to swim and join the competitive swimming ranks. They formed the National Black Heritage Swimming Foundation in December 2009 to further their goals. One of their initial efforts has been to support the Garner Road YMCA and Brittany Copeland’s Jump In® program to provide free swim lessons to minority children during the winter of 2010.

For more details contact the Meet Director, Kathy Cooper at (919) 522-9275 or kcfromnc@mindspring.com, and visit all of our websites – http://blackheritageswimming.org, www.triangleaquatics.org and www.visitraleigh.com.

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