On May 27th, protests against police-brutality erupted nationwide and the Black Lives Matter Movement reignited after the death of George Floyd. These protests shifted the nation’s focus towards the systemic racism in America that has been neglected for too long. In swimming, there is also a racial stigma surrounding African Americans, stemming from the stereotype that “Black people can’t swim”, which is simply not true. In this article, we are going to be recognizing the many professional African American swimmers who defy this stereotype.
Cullen Jones
Cullen Jones was born on February 29, 1984 in the Bronx of New York City but grew up in New Jersey. Jones’s experience with the water started when he almost drowned at age of five at a waterpark. After the scare, his mother enrolled him in swim lessons and his talent for swimming was apparent. Jones was part of a small number of African American swimmers, so after beating kids of other races at swim meets, Jones and his family were often attacked by racist remarks from other parents such as, “Shouldn’t he be playing basketball?” In high school, Jones swam at Saint Benedict’s Preparatory School and set numerous Essex County swimming records.
After graduating high school, Jones received a Division I offer from NC state where he swam from 2002 to 2006, quickly becoming one of the best sprinters in the ACC. During his time at NC State, Jones was a four-time ACC champion in the 50 yard free and the NCAA Division I Champion in 2006. At the World University Games in 2005, he won the 50-meter free, making him the first African American swimmer in the history of the World University Games to win a gold medal.
Jones turned professional in the summer of 2006 and signed with Nike. He made his professional debut at the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships where he set a meet record in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 21.84 seconds. In the years leading up to the 2008 Olympic Trials, Jones solidified himself as one of the best sprinters in the world with a gold and silver medal at the World Championships.
At the 2008 Olympic Trials, Jones placed 3rd in both the 100-meter free and 50 meter free, earning him a spot on the 2008 Olympic Team. At Beijing, he won a gold medal in the world record-breaking 400 free relay alongside Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, and Jason Lezak. After his first Olympic games, Jones set the American record in the 50-meter free at the 2009 US Nationals with a time of 21.40. As one of the top sprinters in the world, Jones had no problem making his second Olympic Games in 2012 where he won silver medals in both the 50 free and the 400 free relay as well as a gold medal in the 400 medley relay. He closed out his professional career with a bronze in the 400-meter free relay at the Pan American Championships.
Outside of the pool, Jones is an activist who is passionate about increasing the diversity of swimming. His most ambitious project is the Cullen Jones Diversity Invitational, a multi-ethnic swim meet featuring education on water safety and the culture of competitive swimming. Jones is currently an ambassador for the Make a Splash initiative that is focused on child water safety by providing opportunities for every child to learn how to swim. Jones continues to make a meaningful impact on swimming by spearheading the way for diversity in the sport.
Simone Manuel
Simone Manuel, also known as “Swimone”, was born on August 2, 1996 in Sugar Land, TX and specializes in sprint freestyle. She started swimming at age 4 when her parents enrolled her in swim lessons intending to teach her water safety, with no Olympic medals in mind. By age 6, she was competing at her local summer swim league. Manuel played many sports throughout the next few years but decided to focus on swimming when she joined the First Colony Swim Team at age 11, quickly becoming one of the top-ranked swimmers in her age group. Manuel was inspired by Michael Phelps’ historic performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where he won a record breaking 8 gold medals. “I think when I watched him swim in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics-I was really, really impressed. I was like, ‘I want to do that one day!’ Maybe not the eight gold medals, but go to the Olympics!”, Manuel said.
While still in high school, Manuel made her international debut at the 2011 FINA World Junior Championships and finished fourth in the 100-meter free. The following year, Manuel competed at the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships where she won the 100-meter free. At 16 years old, she placed 20th in the 50-meter free and 17th in the 100-meter free at the 2012 US Olympic Trials. Her impressive performance at the Olympic trials at such a young age showed her incredible potential. Manuel fulfilled her potential and improved with even stronger showings at the 2013 US National Championships, where she finished 3rd in the 100 free and second in the 50 free, and the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, where she won gold in the 4 by 100 meter free relay and became the first junior swimmer (meaning under 18 years old) to break 25 seconds in the 50 meter free.
Manuel graduated from Fort Bend Austin high school in 2014 and continued her swimming career by committing to swim Division I at Stanford University. During her rookie season at Stanford, she was a four-time national champion in the 50 free, 100 free, 400 free relay, and the 400 medley relay and was also named the Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year. Leading up to the 2016 Olympic Trials, Manuel gained some more international competition experience at the 2015 World Championships, helping team USA win multiple relay gold medals; however, she placed lower in her individual events than she did the year before.
In the 2016 Olympic Trials, Manuel placed 2nd in the 50 and 100 meter free, which earned her a spot on the US Olympic team and two individual races. At the Rio Olympics, Manuel’s first race was the 4x100 meter free relay, which set a new American record with a time of 3:31.89. When it was time for her anticipated 100 meter free, Simone Manuel tied for first place with Penny Oleksiak of Canada with a time of 52.70, making her the first African American woman to win a gold medal in swimming while setting a new Olympic record. After winning the gold medal in the 100-meter free, Manuel followed up with a silver in the 50 meter free. She closed out the games with a 4th medal in the 4x100 medley relay. That same year, she also won USA Swimming’s Golden Goggle Award for her historic race in the 100 freestyle at Rio.
After Rio, Manuel continued to race internationally, collecting more medals, and graduated from Stanford in 2018 with a major in Communication. Now, she continues to train for the next Olympics, which have been postponed due to the current pandemic. Manuel serves as an inspiration for a new generation of swimmers, especially those of color.
“Black People Can’t Swim”
There is a false, long-perpetuated stereotype that Black people can’t swim, which probably started because of the low number of black swimmers compared to black athletes in other sports. But in reality, the low number of black swimmers is not because they can’t swim but a result of racial segregation, which led to the lack of accessibility to the water and a mistrust of it. In the 1940s through the 1960s, pools were marked with “Whites Only” signs and were sites of civil rights protests. When pools began to slowly integrate, many white people rioted at pools to discourage people of color from swimming in them. Despite the Civil Rights Movement that ended segregation in 1964, swimming became a privilege due to the scarcity of public pools and the resulting popular, membership-based private pools. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s State of Working America Wages Report in 2019, Black people still make 27.5% less than White people on average, so it’s very unlikely that Blacks are able to afford access to private pools. In a 2017 report by the USA Swimming Foundation, 64% of African American children between the ages of 4-18 reported little to no swimming ability, compared to 40% of White Children. While the number of Black swimmers has increased, there is still much work to be done as Blacks still only make up 1% of the near 400,000 swimmers registered with USA Swimming.
The reason why so few African American people swim is because of their lack of exposure and access to swimming pools. It has nothing to do with race. The best way to fight the stigmas around Black people and swimming is to introduce swimming and water safety to the Black youth, who are 5.5 times more likely to drown in comparison to their white counterparts. Programs like USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash Initiative focus on teaching young children the life-saving skill of swimming, which reduces the chances of childhood drowning by 88%. Both Cullen Jones and Simone Manuel were exposed to the water at early ages, which gave them the opportunity to blossom into Olympic superstars. More access to swimming pools for more Black youth will ultimately save lives, fight racial stereotypes, and even create a new generation of swimmers of color.
Many of us take our community pools for granted, where we can enter seamlessly with a swipe of a key fob and even host birthday parties and barbecues. However, black communities often do not have this luxury, resulting in higher drowning rates in young black children. Unlike the 1920s through 1940s, pools today are not a high public priority. As a result, public pools are closing down at alarming rates due to budget cuts causing an increase in private pools, which only middle and upper-class Americans can afford, so poorer Black communities living in large, inner cities have less access to pools. Increasing accessibility to public pools for the Black community will undoubtedly save lives and provide them with exposure to the water as well as proper water safety skills.
Information courtesy of USA Swimming Foundation, CDC, Pool Safely, and Swim Swam