Olympic Medalist Wants Every Black Kid To Swim

MIAMI, FL — After becoming the first African-American to win an Olympic medal in swimming, Maritza Correia retired from her life as a competitive swimmer in 2008. Now she is embarking on an even more ambitious goal to change attitudes in the black community toward essential lifesaving swimming skills. But that doesn't mean the Olympian takes it any easier on kids than she would on her full-sized competitors.

"There’s no way they’re going to say 'I beat an Olympian,'" insisted the 35-year-old of the youngsters she meets in swimming clinics around the United States. "I might be retired, but I’m always race-ready." (Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami Patch.)

Raised in the Tampa area, Correia recently made a Public Service Announcement that has started airing around the country on Bounce TV in which she calls attention to the disparity in drowning incidents among children of color.

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"It’s about educating the parents right now and telling them the alarming statistics that 70 percent of African-Americans don’t know how to swim and our children are five and a half more times likely to drown than any other children," she explained. "So when you hear that kind of statistic it’s more of like, here’s a wake-up call: Make sure your child knows how to swim."

There are multiple reasons for the disparity, not the least of which involve cost and proximity.

"I think everybody’s situation is completely different, but swimming is a very expensive sport and not very often do you find a pool within black communities," Correia observed. "You typically see like a basketball court or some kind of field."

There are also cultural stereotypes to overcome along with kids just being kids.

"You also hear from especially black girls that they don’t want to get their hair wet," according to the swimmer. "For guys, you’ll hear things like — they’ll look at the swimsuits that the swimmers wear at the Olympics and they're like, I’ve got to wear that?"

Correia said that the parents of African-American children can call their nearest YMCA to enroll their children in basic swim classes.

"Swimming is a lifesaving skill," she said. "We want them to get in the water, and we’re offering the opportunity to get that at the YMCA, through the YMCA program — and if we find an Olympic athlete out of that, even better."

In addition to being the first U.S. black woman to win an Olympic medal in swimming, Correia was also the first black female swimmer to break an American record and earn a spot on Team USA. She actually set two records in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events back in 2002 before picking up a silver medal in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens.

During the 2016 games in Brazil, Team USA's Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to earn the coveted Olympic gold. She later gave an interview in which she thanked Correia for being one of her role models.

"We’re going to see a lot more numbers of us in the water. Hopefully we’re going to start moving the needle where more of our black kids are learning how to swim," asserted Correia. "I also think that they are going to be looking at swimming as a sport opportunity."

Swimming offers a number of new opportunities for children of color that have been overlooked.

"We can get scholarships and go to school for free. We can gain a whole new set of friends that way, and I think that we’re just going to see a lot more diverse group in the water than we’ve ever seen before," she said. "It’s a process that started years and years ago."

But that's not the primary focus of her public awareness campaign.

"We want to make sure that all black kids know that we can swim," she acknowledged. "We swim fast and we want them to learn this lifesaving skill."

To find your local Bounce TV station, click here.

Watch the Public Service Announcement below:

Photos and video courtesy of Bounce TV