Olympic Swimmer Advocates For Pool Access

Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones working with young people during a swimming event. Photo credit: USA Swimming.
Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones working with young people during a swimming event. Photo credit: USA Swimming.

Olympic Swimmer Advocates For Pool Access

By Tia Carol Jones

Olympic Swimmer Advocates For Pool Access

By Tia Carol Jones

May is Water Safety Month and Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones is using his platform to increase access to pools, swimming education and swimming participation.

According to statistics, Black children 10 years old to 14 years old drown in swimming pools at a rate that is almost eight times higher than white children, and nearly 64% of Black children have little to no swimming ability, putting them at greater risk of drowning.

Jones, who has won Olympic gold and silver medals, and is one of the most decorated Black swimmers in United States history. At the age of five, he nearly drowned at a water park. He believes that it is vitally important that children learn how to swim.  He says, swimming is not just a sport, it’s a life-saving skill.

“Learning how to swim should be a right, not a privilege,” Jones said.

Jones believes that to get more diversity in aquatics, it starts at the grass roots by bringing young people into the pool before they have a negative experience. Jones started taking his own son to the pool when he was six months old, and now, at five years of age he asks if they can go swimming. 

As an advocate for swimming education and swimming participation in diverse communities, Jones has been working with children for the last 15 years, some of whom had a negative experience themselves which led them to be afraid of the water, and some who have had their parents’ fear of swimming transferred to them.

“Parents, especially in the Black and brown communities, look at water as hot, like fire, stay away we don’t do that. We really need from the grassroots, to start changing this generational curse,” he said.

Jones said being a swimmer, there weren’t a whole lot of people who looked like him in the sport when he was growing up. He said even after winning the gold medal in 2008 and setting a world record, he still felt alone. When he heard about Diversity in Aquatics and their work, he wanted to partner with them and became a board member. Jones wanted to help push, support and elevate the stories of people of color daring to be different, whether it was scuba diving, water polo, or swimming. The organization, which was founded in 2010, seeks to educate, promote and support sustainability in water safety and drowning prevention through educational programming and collaborative relationships to promote swimming to underrepresented communities.

For parents who are looking to get their children into a swimming program, they can visit www.diversityinaquatics.org/findapool. Some of the places are low to no cost and some of them do cost. Jones said that it is important that children get swimming education so they can be safe in the water.

Jones said he would like to see swimming become a priority in schools. He said in looking at places outside of the United States, like Australia, swimming is part of a child’s development. He said that in Australia, to not know how to swim is like not knowing how to drive here in America. Jones said he would like to see elected officials view pools as a safe place for children and a place that needs to be supported.

“What we would love for elected officials to understand is that we don’t need pools filled up with cement to make other things. We just need to arm those pools and support those pools with what is really needed, and that’s education, that’s more lifeguards, that’s CPR training and really having people that are representing the community facilitating those things,” he said.

Jones added that he wants to see more people become aquatic managers, coaches and lifeguards so that pools can open and be properly staffed and children can have access to them. He said there also needs to be financial support for pools and aquatics centers.

“You never know, they can be Olympians. More importantly, you can arm these swimmers with the education they need to be better and safer in the water,” he said.


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