Simone Manuel's historic gold as lst black Olympic female swimmer

[shootingstar]

http://www.macleans.ca/olympics/simone-manuel-becomes-first-african-american-woman-to-win-swim-gold/

This article was written by a Canadian black journalist, who grew up as a child in Jamaica. She also talks about the racial segregation of blacks from using public swimming pools.

I feel for Simone's joy. It will be an enormous inspiration for various black children world-wide...it is that significant. Just as it was for Gabby Douglas' golds in gymnastics as lst African-American, shall I say just black for women's gymnastics.

AND I will celebrate the lst non-white female competitive cyclist for Olympics and international cycling competitions.

[Pax]

I was thrilled to see her win! As a former competitive swimmer, lifeguard, swim coach, and finally aquatic center manager; I can say how difficult it is/was to find swimmers of color. I ran a pool in the part of town that was mostly African American, but struggled to find lifeguard candidates who were POC. I so badly wanted for the authority figures at the pool to reflect the community they served. Any time I'd find a kid who was interested I'd mentor them and try to get them to ratchet up their skill set so I could get them into a guard class... in three years I only got one kid who could make it all the way through. Some failed due to lack of interest/fear of the water/societal pressure, others due to lack of skill. It was very frustrating.

This was mid-90's, I'm hoping Simone does for swimming what Tiger tried to do for golf.

[shootingstar]

Never hurts to try.
While yes, income might be related to it : meaning enrolling children in after school lessons for certain sports (and swimming most definitely is just like playing hockey regularily: costs money), there is also a social aspect of a sport. And a friendly adult who believes in the child with natural abilities, to continue.