Effort increases swimming's visibility for blacks

It's not that lines of African-Americans were suddenly forming at swimming pools around the Triangle the day after Cullen Jones won an Olympic gold medal.

But Jones, a former N.C. State swimmer, had certainly made an impression with his role in the U.S. team's 4x100-meter freestyle relay victory Sunday -- perhaps even a small measure of progress toward his broader ambition of getting more blacks into the water.

"Are you serious? Yeah," said George Phillips, a Raleigh lawyer, when asked whether Jones' victory could make any difference to blacks. Phillips, 57, had brought his 1 1/2-year-old son, Benjamin, to Pullen Aquatic Center in Raleigh on Monday.

Jones didn't inspire Phillips, who is black, to go to the pool with his son. Phillips said he goes four or five times a week, having learned to swim while growing up in New York City. That did not make what Jones had accomplished any less inspiring.

"My daughter, who has my two young grandkids, mentioned him to me last night," Phillips said. "I had heard about him, but she mentioned him again and how proud she was and what kind of work he was doing."

Jones has sought to use his swimming prominence to make an impact through the USA Swimming Foundation's "Make A Splash" water safety program.

"I think that's definitely something that has always been in the back of his mind," said Brooks Teal, N.C. State's head swimming coach.

A University of Memphis study sponsored by the USA Swimming Foundation found that in ethnically diverse communities, the youth drowning rate was more than double the national average and that almost six out of 10 African-American and Hispanic or Latino children can't swim -- nearly twice as many as white children. USA Swimming measured its own membership in 2002 and found that blacks accounted for less than 2 percent.

Christina Mial of Raleigh was working to shift the balance a little Monday by helping her niece, Zakiah Haley, 4, and nephew, Keshon Kornegay, 8, learn to swim at the Chavis Park pool.

Her boyfriend, Clarence McDade of Raleigh, sat patiently nearby, watching them.

"I tried to tell him to get into the water awhile ago, and he was like, 'No,' " Mial said.

"You won't ever catch me gettin' in that water," said McDade, who explained that he has been afraid of it since his brother almost drowned several years ago.

Mial, who said she saw the Olympic relay on television, said she probably makes it to the Chavis pool once a week, "or if I have enough money after I finish paying my bills, maybe even twice a day."

It costs her $2.75 to use the pool and the kids 75 cents apiece.

The USA Swimming study found that pool availability, access and safety were among the factors affecting minority participation.

"I think it's more of a socio-economic factor where there are some kids that just don't get the exposure to swimming and others that do," said Terri Stroupe, director of Raleigh's aquatic programs. She advocates more involvement by public schools, noting that other states make swimming part of the curriculum and arguing that swimming should be considered a necessary life skill.

She said she has seen some growth in people taking swimming lessons at city pools but attributes that primarily to the city's increase in population.

George Phillips, the Pullen patron, said he sees no shortage of blacks, Hispanics and Latinos at the pool there but questioned whether that reflects a surge in minority interest or a desire of whites to stay away. "This pool, during certain hours, becomes totally minority," he said. "I don't know how that happens. ...

"I can't really gauge whether the interest is there because the minorities are there, or because they have no other option, or because they're directed to this pool, or what."

Whatever it is, N.C. State's Teal believes Jones will bring even more people to the sport.

"Swimming always gets a boost every four years," Teal said, "but for Cullen, an African-American young man with all the great qualities that he has ... there are bound to be children out there that he's reaching, whether they're just realizing that, hey, the water's nothing to be afraid of, or that swimming can be fun, or maybe competitive swimming is an avenue that they could pursue."