Magic occurs when children and adults learn swimming. Tragedy can strike if not.

Swimming right outside St. Lewis, my head turned around when the young swimming team walked with the parent.

MakoS swimming team players naturally put curls, strings, and locations in a yellow swimming hat. In the grandstands, the crowd whispered the team’s existence in the swimming pool of Central Lia, Illinois, as in almost all competitions.

Randella Randell, the mother of swimmer, said, “They do not know that we are listening.” “But we stay here. We’ve come to represent. We will show you how black children are swimming. We also swim.”

Elijah Gilliam, a 14 -year -old Landel son, is a member of Macos’ competitive YMCA. American swimming North St. A program headquartered in Louis. Nearly 40 athletes aged 4-19 swim in the squad, which encourages black and multi -ethnic children to participate in sports. Terea Goodwin and Torrie Preciado coaches also spread words about water safety in the community.

GOODWIN, a kitchen and bathroom designer known as coach T in the pool, said, “If we all learn how to swim, you can save a lot of life.” Swim is life. “

But like Mako Shark, there are few such black swimming teams. Detroit is as follows RazorHoward University in Washington DC team It made a headline Winning championshipSome alums of the former swimming team of North Carolina A & T Group that provides water safety classes.

In the past, black Americans were banned in many public pools. When racial discrimination was officially banned, white Americans established a private swimming club, and the members had to pay a fee that was not inexpensive. As a result, swimming was effectively separated, and many black Americans were far from the swimming pool.

The influence is still felt. More than one -third of black adults reported that they do not know how to swim. Disease Control and Prevention Statistics CenterMore than twice the percentage of all adults.

Seeing needs in their community, the parents of the Macos swimmer Black swimmer alliance According to the website, at the end of 2023, the goal of “breaking the gap between aquatic technology.” However, the group, which provides swimming lessons for colored families, is concerned about the trend of subsidies due to the recent diversity, equity and federal backlash against programs. Nevertheless, they are raising themselves themselves because they are losing their lives.

Late January, A 6 years old He died in St. Lewis’s hotel pool. Boy of the same age I drowned while I received a swimming lesson In 2022, at St. Louis County Swimming Pool. And across the river in Hamel, Illinois A 3 -year -old boy drowned At the backyard pool last summer.

Drowning Main cause of death According to CDC, children aged 1-4 years old. Black children and Black adult Much more often than white colleagues.

Black Swimmers Alliance members discussed these statistics before the start of advocacy. They also had to solve another problem. Many adult volunteers and parents did not know how to swim. Although their children were competing competitively, their parents moved away from the swimming pool under the fear and history of drowning.

Makos athletes also knew that parents were timid around the water. It is when their role has changed. The children began to find adults.

The 14 -year -old Joseph Johnson called his mother, Connie Johnson.

“He is a mother, you don’t know,” he recalls the 55 -year -old boy. “At first, I was offended, but he was absolutely right. I didn’t know how to swim.”

She joined the coach T and class.

Najma Nasiruddin-Crump and her husband Joshua Crump also joined. His daughter, Kaia Collins-Crump, said she wanted to join the first Macos team she was 14 years old. But none of them knew how to swim.

Joshua Crump at the age of 38 is number

“I don’t swim well enough to hit the children in Gyeongju,” he said.

The 33-year-old Nasiruddin-Crump said she was scared when she first jumped. “It’s the only moment in my life outside my life that my children feared something,” she said. “But once you do that, it’s freedom. It’s pure freedom.”

Mahoganny Richardson, where daughter AVA is on the team, volunteered to teach more makos parents how to swim more.

She said that this work begins outside the pool with a conversation about a person’s water experience. She was pushed to the pool and listened to the story of an adult and told him to sink or swim. Black women often heard that they stay out of the water to maintain the swelling hairstyle when the hair is wet.

The 47-year-old Bradlin Jacob-Simms decided to learn how to swim for almost 20 years after the family survived in Hurricane Katrina. She evacuated the day before the storm, but one of her friends said she survived because her brother could swim.

“If not, they would be dead,” she said. Hundreds of people drowned.

“This is why swimming is important to me,” she said. “As an African -American, we are spending a lot of time. We can avoid it. It is not actually in our school. It was not actually pushed.”

The 13 -year -old Makos Swimmer Rocket McDonald encouraged his mother to return to the water and stick to it. When she was young, her parents signed her for swimming lessons, but she did not end it. Her dad was always Leery of water. McDonald’s did not understand why he did not understand until he read the race riots in the pool that was not far from his father after St. Lewis separated the public pool in 1949.

McDonald’s said, “It was a complete moment.” “Now everyone makes sense.”

At the age of 42, McDonald’s is learning how to swim again.

Safety is always the priority of the Makos team. Coach T practices swimming with full suits with players with survival technology.

A few years ago, the rescue of Kansas City, Missouri pulled dozens of children in the drowning recreational pool. She said that most of them came to cool down, but they were black children who did not know how to swim.

GOODWIN said, “I literally jumped every day and probably took out children from all sections. After repeated rescue, after too many rescue, she decided to provide a class.

Swimming lessons can be expensive. Black Swimmers Alliance aimed to fund 1,000 free swimming lessons by the end of 2025. We have already funded 150 classes in St. Lewis. However, when the group found subsidies, Alliance did not pay attention to which funds could be used by expanding their goals to 500 classes.

I’m still trying to help black athletes to swim competitively in school and college.

In most cases, Macos swimmers practice in the YMCA swimming pool without starting blocks. The backbone flag is fixed in place with the fishing wire, and José Preciado, the husband of the assistant coach, used a 3D printer to create the team’s red regulations 15 meters markers. Once a week, the parent drives the team to another YMCA pool with the start block. The swimming pool is about 5 degrees warmer with the comfort of the senior patrons. Sometimes young swimmers are noisy about the heat, but if you practice there, it will help you meet.

Parents said white officials often disqualified Macos swimmer. So some of the team’s parents studied the rules of sports, and eventually the four became a civil servant who diversified the rankings and treated all swimming players fairly. Nevertheless, the parents said in the meeting that they did not stop racist opinions from the bystander and other swimmers.

GOODWIN taught Makos swimmers to recite. “So we must show them.”

And this spring, Richardson offers classes for Makos parents while children are practicing.

Richardson said, “It’s not about swimming.”