Courtesy: Nike Swim
Nike Swim believes swimming is for everyone and that the swimming world would benefit from more diversity. This month, we have invited black swimmers from around the country to share their stories and experience of swimming black. We want to shine a light on the the issues black swimmers still face in the sport, celebrate accomplishments and our shared love of the sport.
Coach Reno is the head coach of the South Fulton Swim Club.
Young youths see themselves in their role models – often their idols in competitive or professional sports. In swimming; however, those role models for young black youths or minorities are missing or have low visibility, because they are underrepresented in the sport.
Youths have always believed that they can achieve success in their sport of choice through great training and dedication, but they also need to see themselves in a successful athlete within their sport. It is exceedingly difficult for young black swimmers due to the lack of black faces representing swimmers in the media and promotional opportunities. Most youths want to believe that they can achieve success in the sport of Swimming, but without representation it is difficult. Most youths believe what they see is possible, either through the most popular form of social media or news articles.
We have an opportunity to showcase prominent and successful black swimmers of the past and present, which will help young black athletes push past the feeling of isolation in this sport they love.
Why I Swam
My father, Askia H. Bashir, was my role model when it came to learning how to swim and being competitive. Back in the early 80’s, there were no recognizable black figures or faces in the sport of competitive swimming, unlike many other sports at the time. Seeing my father compete at local lifeguard competitions, he instantly became that figure as a role model for me. My father was the City of Atlanta Aquatics Director for most of my childhood, which gave me and my siblings the opportunity to meet Olympian and Gold Medalist, Steve Lundquist in the early 80’s. I was about 12 years old at the time and until then, I had never seen a swimmer quite like him. He was truly awe inspiring due to his sheer speed and friendliness! And that is when I knew that I wanted to do what he was doing, compete at a higher level! I began to take the sport more seriously and as years followed. Success began to mount. This was unusual, especially for a young black kid born from the projects of Atlanta, GA. By the age of 16 I had achieved several High Point Meet Awards, competed at several State and Regional levels, achieved many 1sts for the City of Atlanta Dolphins swim club, won Atlanta’s 1st Gold Medal at the youth Games in Patterson, NJ., and along with 4 other swimmers, became our team’s 1st Georgia All-Star AAA swimmers.
But as success followed, I found myself more alone. I saw fewer and fewer black faces or minorities the more competitive the meets got. I felt completely alone at most meets, sometimes being one of the only black swimmers at the meet. Besides my Mom, Deborah M. Bashir, I found no comfort at all while competing at the meets, especially the “away meets”. This is when I realized that there were no black role models along my journey, which made it even more difficult to want to continue to compete. But I would go on to compete at the collegiate level in 1991, while attending MoreHouse College. During this time, a few names of black successful swimmers would surface, such as Gold Medal Olympian, Anthony Nesty of Suriname, and American Team Captain, Chris Silva of Menlo Park, California. Meeting Chris in the late 80’s would be a bittersweet for me once he moved to Florida. Being the 1st black to possibly compete in the 1992 Olympics was very moving and gave young black swimmers hope. Chris Silva and I would race along with 3 other top teammates of mine in a relay at the Perry Holmes Recreation Center, which was an awesome experience. But I was deeply saddened by his early and untimely death once he returned to Fort Lauderdale, FL. Just for a moment, I had what most youths needed in their sport of choice, a true role model and someone that they can see themselves in.
As I moved from a youth to a young adult, I left competitive swimming, but continued to teach swim lessons while attending Morris Brown College in 1994. While teaching swimming for Professor Mitchells at Morris Brown College, I would meet my future wife, Kimberly Patrick. Who would have known that this would be my greatest success story through swimming! Without her acceptance of swimming as part of my core life, nothing else was possible.
Additionally, I never saw the endgame when it came to competitive swimming. Black inner-city swimmers never saw swimming as a way of life, only a summer job or summer competition.
As I moved further into my career and left swimming behind, so I thought, I would frequently visit a nearby pool, just to stay in shape. A new Aquatic facility had just opened and since I was known by the Director at the time, I was offered a part-time job 1997. From there I began to teach swim lessons again. Before long, I started coaching my own swim team, which was a first for me. It was easy to be a student of swimming, now I had become a teacher of the sport, which I never imagined. But it was my daughter, Khymorah Bashir, that made me a coach. She would just light up when she saw me in the water at just 6 months old. Although, I would not teach her how to swim until the age of about 10, I was not sure if I wanted her to experience the swim world as I did. So, I took my past experience and made sure that no swimmer on our team would feel out of place or uncomfortable at swim meets. I would make sure that their only concern was competing and not the lack of support or feeling alone. That is when I became the “role model” for our kids.
As my son, Haleem R. Bashir joined the team at 8 or 9 years of age, he quickly became super competitive, achieving success and standards that took me years to achieve. I knew then that he could also experience the same loneliness that I experienced throughout my career of competitive swimming. So as with any kid of color or minority, regardless of whether the swimmer was on our team or not, I would show support because those swimmers are usually less than 5% of the swimmers and spectators at the meets. My role would become even more demanding as my son would compete at the high level meets and frequently found himself without any company or teammates. Haleem would frequently ask me to join him at the diving blocks before each race, even as a teenager, which I would do with pride and understanding! My job was not only to be coach and teach, but to also make my swimmers, my parents and coaches feel that they belong.
In most sports, it is about the “endgame”, what is down the road after all the hard work, and the years of training and competing? Black swimmers do not usually see an endgame when it comes to competitive swimming like other sports such as Basketball, Football, Baseball, etc. This is because swimming is usually not expressed to black or minority youths in a way that is attractive or as a potential career path. There are many ways that swimming can be beneficial to athletes down the road of life, including earning a scholarship and education. Some career paths include; being a commentator for the sport, coaching, lifeguard, teaching lessons or being an Aquatic Director. Swimming can be a very rewarding career for anyone dedicated and educated in the sport.
Representation in swimming is still exceptionally low for black and minority youths. They often compete against predominately white teams or clubs. This is sometimes due to the lack of pool facilities within the communities. With few black teams and coaches, black swimmers are less inclined to want to participate in competitive swimming. We have the power to change this, by increasing access for minorities to pools and lessons.
In my past, I have refused great paying opportunities to coach at other locations and great facilities, especially those with a long history of producing great swimming athletes. I knew that if I took my talent away from the black communities that surrounded me, I would have done damage to my community and placed more black lives in danger by not teaching them to swim. So, I have stayed and since 1987, I have been an instrumental part in teaching more than 5,000 black and minority kids and adults how to swim. And if I can, I will continue to teach swimming in the surrounding areas to those that are not included in the world of swimming.
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Courtesy of Nike Swim, a SwimSwam partner.