A Particularity of Diversity at the NCSA Junior Nationals: Simone, Lia, Janet, and Their Coaches

Something really cool happened at NCSA Junior Nationals a few weeks ago. I’m not sure how many of you noticed; you may not have if you were following along at home or just reading recaps (nor may you have cared).

Check out the top three finishers from the women’s 100 free final at what was probably the fastest junior-level meet of the season:

1. Simone Manuel, First Colony Swim Team 47.73 (National Age Group Record)
2. Lia Neal, Asphalt Green, 47.91
3. Janet Hu, Nation’s Capital Swim Club, 48.67

Let’s talk about a subject that many, especially in a “don’t-rock-the-boat” sport like swimming won’t want to touch. Really, we don’t even feel fully comfortable talking about it. Sometimes, though, that’s what we have to do. Open up the conversation on something nobody wants to talk about. In this case, that’s the subject of diversity.

Simone Manuel is an African-American swimmer, who is coached at First Colony by Allison Beebe. Lia Neal is an African-American swimmer, who is coached at Asphalt Green by Rachel Stratton-Mills. Janet Hu is an Asian-American, who trains at the Tyson’s YMCA NCAP site under senior coach John Flanigan; but at the Tyson’s site, Marilyn Mangels is the head coach and trained Hu as the Head Age Group Coach when she was younger.

Are you seeing where we’re going with this?

At the 2011 NCAA Championships, for the first time ever, we saw an African-American 1-2 in the 200 free when Brett Fraser of Florida won and Dax Hill of Texas was 2nd.

After decades of work by many in-and-around the sport in the United States, we are finally seeing some results from diversity efforts. We are seeing success from athletes with African, Asian, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander heritage at the highest levels. We are seeing women break through the coaching ranks to the point that the “old boys club” will have no choice but to open its doors to women, lest they be kicked in instead.

The signs are happening all over the place. Sue Chen, coach of Jack Conger, has been named the new head coach at Machine Aquatics’ new site in Maryland: a potentially massive market for the team. Natalie Hinds was the fastest freshman 100 freestyler in the country at NCAA’s.

Our work as a community is not done. The opportunities must continue to be presented for the underrepresented demographics to enter and succeed in our sport, and those within the underrepresented classes must continue to push the interest in doing so. This moment, though, however subtle it may have been, is a water-shed one for the new generation, because the fact is that the new generation Simply Doesn’t Care.

We can’t speak for the whole of the group, but the new generation doesn’t care if they’re on a relay with black or white or anything else. It took weeks for anybody to even address where these girls’ ancestors, generations ago, came from, or who their coaches were. The fact was that there was a thrill for their successes, and nobody even cared what they looked like beyond college coaches looking at their heights and estimating how that might relate to their potential.

Is this to say that stigmas still don’t exist around our sport? Absolutely not, they are still there. These days, anybody who makes a derogatory comment about race within any public area of the swimming community is shunned, if not looked at in total bewilderment. Stigmas that still exist do so outside of the community, outside of SwimSwam readers. Anybody left who has hangups about these sorts of things within the highest levels of the sport are in small pockets that are being pushed further-and-further to the periphery. As swimmers and coaches from all creed, race, color, and background continue to succeed, the voices of the dissenters will become harder-and-harder to hear.

(Editor’s Note: There is no intent to push any sort of a cause on any of these swimmers who don’t want it. Those like Cullen Jones who have chosen to take up the torch for diversity have done so by their own will, but we are now in an era where anybody who doesn’t want to simply doesn’t have to, and those who wish to will be lauded for it. And that’s a great era to be in.)

See some of these great female coaches speak at the upcoming Women in Coaches Clinic at Stanford University from April 12th-13th. More info here.

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cynthia curran
11 years ago

p.s. there are many places in the U.S. where Asian Americans have very little, if any, participation in swimming and there are plenty around (doesn’t mean that they should but it is a sociological fact)This is true.,

cynthia curran
11 years ago

Well, for Hispanics soccer is the main sport, in the past 15 years a lot of immirgation so Mexicans or Central Americans and so forth prefer soccer. Brenda Villa came from Commerce which is a Hispanic town which supports Water Polo and Swimming.

cynthia curran
11 years ago

Black kids from primarily black communities consider swimming a gay sport. Until that changes, and I do not see that changing very fast, swimming is missing on many Dax Hills. There are very few black kids swimming in Austin clubs. Only handful even in the largest clubs. Asian Americans should not be discussed together with blacks. Clubs are full of asian american kids (our kids are half asians by the way). Does USA Swimming have a program for attracting black kids to swimming? If they do, I do not see that at work around Texas.

Well, since blacks are not the majority of kids, Hispanics whiich are a racial mixture are faster growing group for example, Orange County home of… Read more »

FREEBEE
Reply to  cynthia curran
11 years ago

Great article. It is good to note. No one needs to celebrate or ask that the article not be written at all. It is amazing– if you write ONE article about racial/ethnic difference some people are already like “do we really need to here this.” No needs to speak for why black kids or latino kids don’t like a sport–we’re all people with different opinions and if we really want no those answers we can go to those places and ask the kids. I too think that identity is sometimes overdone in all aspects of U.S. life but it race/sex/gender ignites discussion–I guess we’re participating–kudos SWIMSWAM

p.s. there are many places in the U.S. where Asian Americans have very little,… Read more »

PsychDado
11 years ago

JMan says:
>I swam in Detroit in the 1970′s in a very diverse community. We all got along great.

In Detroit? In 70s? Come on, man. Nobody can believe that…

Black kids from primarily black communities consider swimming a gay sport. Until that changes, and I do not see that changing very fast, swimming is missing on many Dax Hills. There are very few black kids swimming in Austin clubs. Only handful even in the largest clubs. Asian Americans should not be discussed together with blacks. Clubs are full of asian american kids (our kids are half asians by the way). Does USA Swimming have a program for attracting black kids to swimming? If they do, I do… Read more »

jman
Reply to  PsychDado
11 years ago

Psycho dad. I went to Henry Ford High School in Detroit starting 9th grade in 1976. Same HS that produced Kevin Machamer who was a diving member of the 1980 Olympic team (and basketball star Greg Kelser). Although the school was up to 90% black at the time the swim team was about 50-50. It was a fun time. As a small white guy in that school I more than once used my black friends to keep me safe. Yes, we got along well. Keith Jamerson..if your out there…thanks.

Yes, USA Swimming has a diversity program. Our club has worked with a team in Detroit and there have been stories of the Michigan men’s team going into Detroit to put… Read more »

11 years ago

my 2 cents on the matter: swimming was a bit of niche sport appealing only to people of a certain socio-economic class and of a certain family type and yes, race. as we see the sport becoming more diverse we see swimming reaching more people. the more people who follow swimming, watch it on tv, read about on websites like this, participate in it, be that summer league, usa-s, ymca, high school, college, post grad, masters or simply rec swimming, the more likely we are to see increases in funding for the sport, the less likely we are to see more programs get cut ect. I have a buddy who was a football player in college and now works as… Read more »

cynthia curran
11 years ago

with Tran, Au, Cheng, Tosky, Neal, and Li.

Well, the metro areas they good from have above average Asian population. Li is from the Bay area, some counties are over 20 percent. Tran is from Orange County Asian population about 18 percent but most are Vietnamise that usually don’t do as good as Chinese or Japanese. Neal is from New York a lot of people of Asian descent, the city is now 13 percent. Toksy I think is also Northern California and Au not certain. Blacks are 13 percent of the general Populatoin and about 11 percent in Texas and down to 6 percent in California and about 14 percent in Florida, so maybe underrepresented. Hispanics about 17 percent of… Read more »

Duckduckgoose
Reply to  cynthia curran
11 years ago

Toskey went to Palo Alto High, directly across the street from Stanford. Same high school as Jeremy Lin. whose dream schools were Stanford, Cal, and UCLA, but settled for Harvard.

Au’s from Hong Kong.

Joker
11 years ago

+1

jman
11 years ago

That’s all good but when does it stop? When do you stop noticing colors and nationalities, etc? I am thrilled that my niece and nephews who have a mother who is of Asian descent and a European descent father just think of themselves as Americans and not Asian-Americans. I am thrilled that Lia Neal doesn’t promote herself as anything but a swimmer. What does it all matter? There was never a sinister ‘keep it all white’ plan for swimming. It is open to anyone. I swam in Detroit in the 1970’s in a very diverse community. We all got along great. We were not very good. Is it only ok when different hyphen-Americans reach the top of the sport? Or… Read more »

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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