A golden opportunity for kids
Olympic winner Manuel gives swimming lesson to local youths
Simone Manuel glided through the water as a line of young children attempted a one-armed freestyle drill she had done hundreds of times before.
The 20-year-old Olympic gold medalist watched as they passed, offering tips and encouragement when they stopped to breathe or rest.
“Try rotating your hips a little more,” she said gently to a young girl who had turned to her for advice.
The champion freestyler, a Sugar Land native, volunteered for the first time with the USA Swimming Foundation’s “Make a Splash” program, a multi-city effort to teach children basic swimming and water safety skills. About 150 students received lessons Saturday at the Dad’s Club swimming complex near Spring Branch as part of the initiative, which included three other Houston-area pools as well as Olympic gold medalists Cullen Jones and Rowdy Gaines.
Through the program, which started in 2007, the foundation has provided about $4.5 million in grants to provide lessons for children at swim clubs nationwide. This year Houston-area pools received $100,000.
Access to swim lessons is limited among lowerincome families. The foundation recently conducted a study with the University of Memphis that found nearly 80 percent of children in households with income less than $50,000 have little or no knowledge of how to swim. Efforts commended
Lack of knowledge creates a risk of accidental drowning, the second leading cause of unintentional death among children younger than 14. The danger is higher for AfricanAmerican and Latino children, who are less likely to learn to swim than other demographic groups.
Whether a child learns to swim often depends on whether his or her parents know how, said Debbie Hesse, the foundation’s executive director. A lack of knowledge can create fear of enrolling a child in lessons.
“It’s a cultural issue in this country,” Hesse said.
At a press conference Friday, Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis commended the program’s efforts to expand access to swim lessons among lower-income families. Neither learned how to swim during childhood, and both pledged to learn.
“We can’t tell kids to do something and then not do it ourselves,” Turner said. Golden message
Last year, Manuel became the first AfricanAmerican woman to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual swimming event, the 100-meter freestyle. Hesse said she hoped Manuel’s appearance at the pool would demonstrate the importance of lessons, as well as the opportunities available to those who ultimately adopt swimming as a hobby or a sport.
“When you hear the message from an Olympian, it seems to resonate more,” she said.
Nira Proto, who lives in the Heights, watched as her three-year-old twins, Seth and Sasha, worked with another instructor in a shallower part of the pool. She first enrolled them in lessons two years ago for greater peace of mind around the family pool, and she hopes they’ll stick with it as a sport.
“It was of the utmost importance to me that they learn to swim as early as possible,” she said. Started at 4
Manuel’s mother, Sharron, recalled her daughter’s insistence on joining a local swim team at age 4, before she had taken a swim lesson. She put Manuel in the pool with an instructor, thinking she would need several sessions to learn the basics, and watched in awe as she completed a full lap on her second lesson.
“Boy, was I wrong,” she said. “She did not have any fear at all.”
On Saturday, Manuel tried her hand at instructing for the first time. She found it challenging to offer critiques, she said, but words of encouragement came easily.
“That’s what keeps you in this sport,” she said.