D.C. is home to the nation’s premier minority swim event — the Black History Invitational Swim Meet.
The meet draws in more than 1,000 swimmers from across the country each year. This year, 1,300 swimmers from 38 states came out — a record for the event.
“They love to swim and we love to see it,” said Thennie Freeman, the director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.
Logan Bunn, who is from Ward 8, has been participating the last few years.
“I primarily learned how to swim simply because my mom wanted me to do a sport, especially because a lot of Black kids don’t know how to swim,” she said.
Former Mayor Marion Barry founded the invitational to break down racial barriers in swimming.
“We try our best to build our African American swimmers,” Freeman said. “There still is a disparity nationally about African American youth.”
Drowning death rates for Black people under age 30 are one and half times higher than rates of white people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disparities are highest among Black children between ages 5-9. The rate is 2.6 times higher than rates of white people, and for Black children between ages 10-14, it’s 3.6 times higher.
That’s why the parents of Joi Webb made sure to get her lessons early.
“We saw some numbers of the amount of Black kids that drown, and we knew we didn’t want our daughter to be a statistic,” Rosalind Balkcom, Joi’s mom, said.
The family traveled all the way from Jacksonville, Florida so Joi could participate in this competition for the first time.
“We didn’t even know that there was such an invitational swim meet such as this, and we just thought it would be a great opportunity for her,” Balkcom said
The invitational continues on Sunday. If you would like to watch from home, there is a livestream.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/h1Ypfgq
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