A Brief History Of Swimming and the U.S. Presidency

Tuesday, Nov. 5 is Election Day in the United States and the country’s next president will be chosen. In honor of the event, let’s take a walk down memory lane and examine the history of swimming and the U.S. presidency.

The White House has many amenities, including an outdoor swimming pool. But before the outdoor pool was built during Gerald Ford’s presidency, there was an indoor swimming pool installed in 1933. The pool was built for Franklin D. Roosevelt and was installed in 1933. 11 years earlier, Roosevelt had been diagnosed with polio, and The Daily News established the Roosevelt Swimming Pool Fund to raise the money to construct the pool as swimming was one of the only ways that Roosevelt could exercise, according to the White House Historical Association.

“Swimming is the only sport in which he can indulge. It is the one sport which he enjoys to the utmost, which will keep him in perfect physical condition,” said X. The fund reached its goal in two weeks.

Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson all used the indoor pool regularly during their time in office.

Kennedy was a member of the Harvard University swim team. In a 1970 interview with The Harvard Crimson, Harold Ulen, who had been the coach during Kennedy’s years on the team, said he trained Kennedy as a backstroker who “‘compared fairly well with the backstrokers of his day’” and remembered that he would hide in the showers when the Kennedy photographers would come to take pictures of the swimmers. Kennedy is also remembered for his role in a dramatic swim to rescue PT-109 during World War II.

 

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As president, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which among other things, outlawed segregation in businesses as well as public places—like public swimming pools. Public pools in some cities had begun desegregating a decade earlier due to the Brown v. Board of Education decision. However, the following closure of many municipal pools and the creation of private swimming clubs is an unfortunate legacy still felt in American swimming.

Nixon did not regularly use the White House indoor pool and in 1970, the space was converted into the White House Press Room, though the White House Historical Association states it was done in such a way that the pool could easily be restored.

Five years later, private donations funded the White House outdoor pool. Ford, the president at the time, used to swim regularly in his Alexandria pool, and his press secretary quoted Ford saying “’15 minutes in the pool is worth two martinis.’”

Ronald Reagan is well-known for his acting career, but like Kennedy, he swam competitively growing up. He was a member of the Eureka College swim team. Per the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, he worked six summers as a lifeguard and is credited with saving 77 people from drowning. In 1984, he became the first U.S. president to attend the Olympic Opening Ceremony and declare the Games open. (Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the 1932 Winter Games as the governor of New York).

Even presidents not known for their former swimming careers or use of the White House pool have been involved with the sport. The White House did not have a pool when John Quincy Adams was president, but that didn’t stop him from swimming recreationally; when the weather was nice, he would take his talents to the Potomac River.

The sixth president kept a daily diary and often chronicled his swims. “I rise usually between four and five—Walk to Miles, bathe in Potowmack river, and walk home,” he wrote in a July 1818 entry.

While Reagan became the first sitting U.S. president to open the Olympic Games, George W. Bush became the first sitting U.S. president to attend an international Games. He and his father, former president George H.W Bush took photos with members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic swim team including Larsen Jensen and Michael Phelps, who of course won eight gold medals at those Games in Beijing. He also signed the first federal pool and spa safety legislation, the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.

Finally, many Olympic and Paralympic swimmers have been welcomed to the White House to celebrate their achievements. The White House Historical Association marks a June 1924 visit from the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team as the first time Olympians visited the White House. Calvin Coolidge was president at the time. In 1964, a larger group of approximately 100 U.S. Olympic medal winners attended a luncheon at the White House, one of the first larger-scale visits from Olympians. George H.W Bush held a ceremony on the South Lawn for the 1992 Olympians, similar to the celebrations we’ve seen in recent years.