Why are there no African- American swimmers?

Answer 1

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Cause we aren't the best swimmers.
(in general)
Although i'm sure ther are some blacks out there who can anyone- no matter the race- any time.

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I bet its ture thanks for your feed

Answer 2

there were 2 african american guys on my highschool team .. & i remember there being one girl on another team ..

but that's about it.

our team was pretty crappy, though.

Answer 3

There are, but just less of them. I recommend the movie PRIDE about the PDR swim team; Jimmy Ellis (who is African American) set up a swim team in Philly. It shows how they were at one point descriminated against also. It's a very inspiring movie, nd Jimmy is just so nice.


Cullen Jones: amazing African American sprint freestyler. signed with Nike.

Also, check out this article: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewM…

It discusses how minorities are being pushed more towards Basketball, and Football because of the media. And, also, because (please dont call me racist or anything) but generally it is harder for minorities to find a location to swim at. Even still, if they do, many end up quitting because they feel left out or would rather play a sport that would let them fit in. On my team, we have six swimmers who are black and who are amazing national-level swimmers. It all depends where you are from.

Answer 4

The reason that you don't see a lot of African-American swimmers is in part because of economics and discrimination and part cultural heritage.

Pools are expensive to build and maintain. In the 50's and 60's African-Americans didn't have access to pools for the most part. Cities didn't have the money or desire to build pools in predominantly black areas (See 'Wet Chicago'). No pools mean no swimming. This leads into the second reason that you don't see African-American swimmers. The other part of the economic equation is that swimming is an expensive sport. In football, soccer, basketball etc you can develope skills without professional coaching or decent equipment. Swimming requires a pool, suits, etc and very few swimmers are 'self-taught'. While not quite as expensive as hockey or figure skating, swimming is still an expensive sport.

Children learn most of their skills from their parents and their immediate community. Studies have shown that if a child's parents don't know how to swim, then that child is less likely to know how to swim or be given the opportunity to learn how. In 1996, Miami-Dade commissioned a study on why minorities were significantly underrepresented in the city and county police forces. There were allegations that Miami-Dade was discriminating against minorites. What the report found was that there was racial proportionality between applicants and the community, but that minorities were 5 times more likely to fail the pre-screening physical fitness screening because they couldn't pass the swim test.

This is beginning to change. USA swimming is making a big push to develop swimming in minority communities. Organizations like the Trident Swim Foundation are creating opportunities for competitive swimming in low income areas. Minorities are becoming more affluent and able to afford housing in areas that have community pools and afford swim lessons and swim teams. Over the next decade, expect to see more diversity in American swimming.

Answer 5

Caucasians are best at swimming.

There are a lot of sexy swimmers and they are mostly caucasian like me.

Answer 6

its because of the different body structure and composition.

you will probably notice that African Americans are more dominant in the sprinting events in running..this is because of their long limbs, narrower hips and a larger proportion of fast twitch fibers. they also have a very low percentage of body fat with slight body build.

swimmers tend to be Caucasian (NOT SAYING ALL ARE) because we have larger upper bodies and have a bigger lung volume. this makes us faster in the water. we tend to be mesomorphs which means that we have a higher muscular and lean body shape which is perfect for swimming. where as African Americans are more ectomorphs which makes them more suited to endurance type activities like marathons...etc

Source(s):

year 12 physical education student & competetive swimmer

Answer 7

cullen jones

Answer 8

I think that most blacks prefer contact sports as opposed to indivilized sports. That's not the gospel just my 2 cents and opinion.