Ok.  So I was really disappointed in the Olympic swim trials.  Not only did I see nobody black but Cullen Jones, but I didn’t even see our local folks.  Yes, there was a boy and a girl from Great Lakes Aquatics that made Olympic swim times, and Brie even said she was going, but if you’re not a superstar, or an emerging one, NBC won’t even show you at all.

Which is where we find Cullen Jones.  There he was, with all that speed and potential. . . and he finishes third.  A few times.  So he’ll be on the relay team, like Maritza in 2004.  Btw, when I was scouring the  internet looking for proof that our local girl, Brianne Powers was actually going to the Olympic trials, I found that Maritza Correria was # 3 in the 100 M free,  time-wise.  I was doubly disappointed that she retired in May.  And where was Brielle White?

It must be awfully frustrating to be a pioneer.  I heard that Anthony Ervin, who’s credited as the first African-American man to make the Olympic team has said, “I don’t look black anyway.”  Which is true enough.  And although he tied with Gary Hall, Jr. in the 50 free for gold in 2000, Ervin is more lauded as being black, while Hall jr. is lauded for being a decorated swimmer.

It must have been like that for the early basketball/baseball/football integrators.  Nobody thinks anything of a black man excelling in basketball anymore.  That probably wasn’t the case in the early days of that sport’s integration.

So now it’s up to the kids in the swim clubs to keep plugging away.  We knew a determined black swimmer in our local club.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kiya Mitchell make a big splash nationally in a few years.  And Kalamazoo is far from a black city.

So it starts with these pioneers.  And then others get the glint in their eye about swimming.  And maybe black folks can get a glimpse of a different life, and escape generational poverty.

And America has a chance at remaining dominant in swimming in the years to come.