Important Swimming Story in Wall Street Journal

I thought many of you would be interested in this.

Perhaps even a team outing to see the movie together?

The following is a partial quote from the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, March 20, 2007:

Minorities and the Swimming Gap

Perhaps no institution in America is less racially diverse than the swimming pool.

The result: Black children drown at rates far above average.

The problem has drawn little attention because drownings kill a fraction of the number of African-American children who die in, say automotive accidents, and because black parents haven't much protested against the dearth of pools and swim instruction in the inner city.

In part this is because of higher priorities such as improving schools and reducing crime.Yet it also reflects the lingering effect of spurious research -- some of it published in academic journals as recently as the 1960s -- describing blacks is inherently less buoyant and disadvantaged in water.

Little wonder that black parents in disproportionate numbers of never learned to swim, have harbored a fear of water and have cautioned their children to stay away from it, according to many who studied the problem. . .

Now, a coalition of local and national health officials and some groups are creating programs to teach inner-city children how to swim, focusing particularly on minorities. . .

The same parents who make sure their children can read, write and play basketball need to make sure their children can swim.This is a life-saving skill.

These efforts are expected to get a boost from the release this week of a movie featuring a long-ignored hero in American storytelling -- the black swimmer.

Called "Pride," the movie is based on the true story of a Philadelphia parks-and-recreation coach who salvaged an abandoned pool and turned and inner-city group of blacks into athletic stars. Leaving their dingy pool for meets in fancy suburbs, the young black swimmers encounter looks of disbelief from their all-white competitors.

But the results make clear that nothing inherent is keeping blacks from achieving success in the pool.

Public-health officials hope the publicity about African-American success in the pool will put misperceptions to rest and help narrow a swimming-proficiency gap that helps explain why black children between ages 10 and 14 drown at 4.5 times the rate for white children.

Swimming ability is such a vital survival skill that some health officials believe it should be a school requirement.

• Check out info on the Pride movie, including a link to the trailer.

• USA Swimming has a new program to address the problem. It includes "Sponsor a Swim Lesson":"Through retail partnerships and individual donations, the USA Swimming Foundation will provide free swimming lessons to children who can’t afford them in ethnically and economically diverse areas. The first program will launch in March with a soon-to-be-announced retail partnership."

• UCSC alum Emily Lenard will be Swim Lesson Coordinator at Heman Park this summer, and UCSC alum Jesse Winters has offered to help out with UCSC. There may be some opportunity to work with them on participating in "Sponsor a Swim Lesson". It could be a good recruiting opportunity, as well as just plain a good thing.