In order to get a Bachelor's at East Carolina University, you HAVE to pass the swim test. Or you take beginning swimming in order to do so. Basically, the classes are 99% black.

Luckily, I barely passed that thing so I could graduate.

I am sick and tired of reading crap like this. Not every black person is scared of water. Some of us actually know how to swim!!! Both my sister and I are swimmers. She is alot more advance then me. You know blacks really don't have to worry about whites putting us down. People like you do a good job of it already. Why don't you write about how wonderful black people are and that everyone wants to be like us but won't admit it. That would be refreshing. The only good thing about this article is now when I watch the Olympics I will have someone to cheer.

he can teach me whatever he wants!!!!!

Lauren,

Having followed the Olympics for many years, I think it's a timely and very positive post. I love it when I see African American's take the lead in an area that has little representation. So keep on doing what you do!!

I was born knowing how to swim.
It's really not that hard.

Thanks for the post! I was a synchronized swimmer and a lifeguard. It helps if pools are close and lessons are cheap. Learning to swim takes time and technique is important, but anyone of any age can do it!

-water baby for life

I would live in the water if someone like Cullen, was willing to teach me the backstroke.

I guess I was a little too naive when I was growing up, so my dad would push me in the water(pool, lake , creek, whitewater amusement park) at every chance he got. He would tell me that the white man was gonna sneak and push the black man to his weaknesses and limitation, so I had to be ready. I can swim like any MF'er now

imagine this man also taught me how to drive

cool! i'll be watching for him.

I was on a swim team in Newark for many years.

Damn, did you have to put me on blast like that? When the time is right, I promise that I will learn how to swim. Until then, I'll just wade in the shallow end.

There's this old stereotype that still lingers which states that Black people can't swim because our bodies are too stocky, so we sink.

But I don't believe that. I'm a natural born swimmer…

My Mum made sure me and my sister did sports, we took swimming classes since toddlers. She even took them as well. The leisure center was an important part of the family activity.

In the 2004 Olympics, Malia Matella, a black woman from France, won the silver medal in the 50 meter sprint. I think she won a bronze in a 100 meter sprint.

She was 4th in the 100 meter event at the 2004 Olympics.

Cosmic,

I hate to tell you that I can't swim! I'm not so much "afraid" of the water but I never took lessons.

Lauren,

Don't feel bad I am one of those people like "a certain someone" who needs to learn how to swim.

Tribalace,

Speak for yourself it's hard for me! Well- trying to teach myself. I can somewhat swim underwater but I really think I am doing something and when I come up I am only a few feet from where I started! I can't get anywhere on top of the water!!!

Cosmicsistren calm down. Its really not that serious lady. There are a large number of us who can't swim well. That's not saying that there are not more like you and your sister who swim well.

jess2much4u &solitaire- I know right. You see that V. I know what I want for xmas.

CollegeChick I was just reading about this sterotype. It says that our bones are to dense and we naturally have low body fat.

Anthony Nesty of Surinam - first won an Olympic gold medal.
Anthony Ervin took gold in the 50-metre free style at the 2000 Sydney Games, tying with Gary Hall, a US team-mate

Ex-HS varsity swimmer here…my muscles still ache…;)

I was just coming in to post about Anthony Ervin's world record, but Chic Noir beat me to it!

I can't swim though I've taken lessons multiple times. Freezing when you get anxious + 8 feet of water = drowning. I've had to be pulled from the bottom more times than I care to admit. It has nothing to do with being black. It has to do with my survival skills that tell me not to go near water.

My little cousins have been taking swimming lessons since they were 3 or so. You have to start them early. You can't stick someone in 2 feet of waters for years and years, then pluck them into deep water and expect them to not freak out.

I know how to swim, but haven't done so in years. I think that black people don't know how to swim because for the most part, as kids, we just get in the water and assume that's all there is to it.If swim lessons were emphasized instead of just wading and splashing one another, more black people would possess swimming skills.

My university required at least one aquatics class prior to graduation (and 6 PE courses in all). Because of necessity (scheduling issues), I took swimming and water polo for all 6 PEs. I learned to swim around 2 or so, and I've loved the water ever since.

I agree with Cullen, we've got to teach people and get them interested in swimming. It most certainly is a life skill, and too many of my friends don't have it.

oh…and i wish I just "naturally" had low body fat…

I'm so glad there's a black swimmer. That's one of the best Olympic sports, even though I can't swim. I'm like daria of GBW, I cramp up when I try to swim. Anyway, I'm very excited. This is the first good news about the Olympics.

I can swim and I know plenty of black people who know how to swim. But even so, it's nice to know that a "brotha" will be competing at the Olympics.

I think a bigger issue is the lack of available swimming in our neighborhoods, as well as the expense of lesson etc… Growing up, we had maybe 2 pools in my new england small city that were open/public pools and the only lessons available were at the YMCA, which were not cheap.

Now, 2 of the 9 houses on our street have pools, we have access to over 25 pools in our community/county and I alone make 2-3 times a year what my Dad made, so I have more discretionary income to pay for things like swim lessons and golf lessons etc….

My kids are 5 and almost 7 and they take lessons every week. They are little fish! Particularly my daughter and we've heard the "she has a swimmers body" stuff more than once….

its not just "blacks are afraid of water etc…..

its access AND affordability

I'd never heard that stereotype about black people sinking in water- it's an especially silly one. It looks like Cullen has very little body fat (in fact, daaamn kiddo- nice swimmer bod). Apparently he floats along quite well.

My grandfather was a swimming coach, and my dad taught me to swim as a kid. It's useful- you feel a lot better about being near water in general. And Italians are made out of olive oil and cement. If we don't sink, no one will!

Didn't baby wipes play a swim coach in some movie?

just saw this headline on msnbc:

Nearly 60 percent of black children can't swim

and thought of this post.

not sure how many folks they polled to get that percentage, but i'll buy it.

[article features a pic of cullen helping black kids in Nebraska. ("black kids in Nebraska" -- is that an oxymoron? lol)]

i didn't learn to swim until age 24 — despite 3 summers of lessons as a kid and plenty of access to pools. my problem, i think, was that MY parents don't swim. thus, i think I assumed there was something to be afraid of.

i finally got fed up with not swimming — i cut my hair to a short "monica" cut, and decided to do the damn thang. now, jumping off that diving board is a whole 'nutha issue.

Oh yes. My hair turned rust-colored with chlorine exposure. People thought my "highlights" were cute until of course that crap fell off in August.

Yes he did daria but the movie went straight to home video.

I thought that sentence would be "Well, only two percent of FAT IS ON HIS PERFECT BODY." Or something along those lines …

Not that that is everyone's definition of a perfect body, but it sure is mine …