Inaugural HBCU Celebration Swim Meet Kick-Starts Interest for All Levels, Ages

Miriam Lynch found her community in the local swimming pool while growing up a child of military parents.

Because of her love for the sport, as well as her desire to raise awareness about swimming and water safety among the Black community, she–with support from U.S. Masters Swimming, USA Swimming, Diversity in Aquatics, Georgia Swimming, and Peachtree Timing–orchestrated the inaugural HBCU Celebration Swim Meet last December. USMS set up and covered all fees for registration and entries and sent items for giveaways.

The meet took place at Morehouse College in Atlanta during the weekend of the Celebration Bowl, a football game pitting the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference, two conferences comprised of HBCU schools. More than 100 adults, ranging from 18 to their 70s, came together to compete, learn, and celebrate. The second annual meet has been scheduled for Dec. 16 at Morehouse College.

“This was the first time in 20-plus years that a competition was held in the Morehouse pool,” says Lynch, executive director of Diversity in Aquatics, an organization that educates, promotes, and supports historically underrepresented communities and vulnerable populations with the skills needed to be safe and participate in aquatic physical activities and environments. "At one time, every one of the HBCUs had a swimming program, but now, only Howard has one.

"This meet was our way of bringing everyone together–current HBCU students and alumni–and celebrate and sustain the sport and each other.”

Over the last few decades, HBCU aquatic programs have gradually deteriorated, largely due to a lack of support from their administrations. At several HBCUs, there are swimming pools that aren't used to their fullest capacity, which means students and staff are missing opportunities to learn lifesaving skills that can be passed down through generations.

However, five HBCUs are building or restarting their swim clubs: Grambling State University, North Carolina Central University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Delaware State University.

Having Black adults participating in aquatics shows Black children that there are opportunities within aquatics, Lynch says. Although she didn’t attend or swim for an HBCU, Maritza Correia McClendon, who won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, recognizes this opportunity and attended the meet both as a representative of the sport but also as a board member of Diversity in Aquatics. Four-time Olympic medalist Cullen Jones also attended and lent support to the event’s mission.

“We wanted to bring awareness to the fact that we have gone from over 20 HBCU aquatics programs to one in 40 years,” McClendon says. “As we engaged the community and our HBCU alum, the hope is to spark interest in bringing aquatics back to HBCU institutions. It’s important to raise awareness to these states and get the conversation started on how we can increase participation, funding, and opportunities at HBCUs.”

Virgil Chancy, a member of the Southern Pacific LMSC, worked the meet as an official. He says he left the meet feeling very optimistic about and motivated by how it brought a lot of HBCU schools and swimmers of all levels of proficiency–from those just getting started to competitive athletes–together, and got conversations started about opportunities to expand the meet and swimming among Blacks in the future.

Lynch says funds raised from the meet will go toward supplying suits and equipment to HBCUs, as well as providing water safety classes to underrepresented groups via Diversity in Aquatics.

“This meet was a way to kick-start programs again and get aquatics–especially water safety programs–going again,” Chancy says. “This was the first of what we expect to be many future meets to increase awareness and memberships in swimming, USA (Swimming) and USMS.

“Everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed the experience, and we expect an even bigger turnout next year. We’re all ambassadors for aquatics. It’s a lifetime sport. This (meet) was just the beginning.”