Meet the Black women pushing for equality in swimming

CNN
 — 

Omie Dale has fond memories of splashing in the sea as a child, of racing through water parks and swimming in backwaters and rivers.

“There’s so much joy that can be had once you learn to swim, once you’ve abandoned those fears and you can get in the water,” the 25-year-old Dale, who is based in southeast London, tells CNN Sport.

Even though swimming is a joyful experience for Dale, the stark reality is that many Black communities in Britain and the US do not have safe access to swimming lessons and public pools due to historic racism and segregation – a problem that is especially alarming given that, as Dale says, it is “the only sport that can save your life.”

A history of exclusion

The lack of access afforded to Black communities in Britain is what motivated Dale to become a swimming teacher in September 2019.

“I used to work in Kensington (in London) as a lifeguard and some of the richest people live in that borough, but also some of the poorest,” she says. She saw there was a difference when private schools and independent schools would come in and all the kids were able to swim, yet hardly any children of the same age that Dale saw from state schools could swim 25 meters.

“There’s a real class barrier in the sport of swimming,” Dale adds.

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Meet the Black women pushing for equality in swimming

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She is a director of Swimunity, a collective offering free swimming lessons to women and children in North Kensington, West London.

It was born in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017, when a residential block caught on fire, killing 72 people – and leaving many more without homes.

“There’s like a lot of people who come to swim lessons … who have undergone some form of trauma, whether that be water-related trauma or trauma related to their everyday lives,” Dale says.

“Many people say it’s like an escape from their daily lives or is, actually, the first time that they’ve taken time for themselves.”

While 77% of children from the most affluent families in England can swim 25 meters unaided, only 34% from the least affluent families can, according to a 2021 survey from Sport England, a non-departmental public body that fosters grassroots sports in England.

About 95% of Black adults and 80% of Black children in England do not regularly participate in swimming, according to Sport England’s report, published in January 2020.

Likewise, about 93% of Asian adults and 78% of Asian children, including those with Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, do not regularly participate in swimming, the same research found.

This trend extends to the US, where nearly 64% of Black children have “low” or no ability to swim, compared with 40% of their White peers, according to 2017 data from the country’s national governing body for the sport at a competitive level, USA Swimming.

The underrepresentation of Black people in the pool in the US can be traced back to the early 20th century.

Public swimming pools became popular in North America in the 1920s and 30s and were initially open to all. However, Northern politicians stipulated a “Whites Only” rule, referencing racist fears about Black men fraternizing with White women.

Omie Dale told CNN Sport that “there’s a real class barrier in the sport of swimming.” Dale founded Swimunity in 2020 to help address structural barriers and introduce the joy of swimming to as many people as possible.

Louis Lesson/CNN

Even after legal racial segregation ended in the US in 1964, public pools continued to be hostile environments. As people of color began to use public pools, White swimmers retreated to the privacy of their own pools and private clubs, where expensive fees continue to be an economic barrier for Black families who cannot afford the cost.

Similar examples in Britain illustrate how racial and class inequalities lead to the systemic exclusion of Black people in pools. For example, more than 4.2 million people in the UK live in ethnically diverse communities where Covid-19 national lockdowns resulted in the closure or mothballing of pools, according to Swim England – England’s national swimming governing body – and the Black Swimming Association (BSA), a UK-based charity that aims to encourage more African, Caribbean and Asian communities to take up swimming.

‘We cannot keep recovering bodies’

Globally, drowning is the third leading cause of accidental injury-related death and at least 236,000 people die each year from drowning, according to 2019 data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Children are particularly affected, with drowning being one of the top five causes of death for those aged 1-14 years in 48 of 85 countries studied by the WHO.

And while natural disasters and irregular migration are notorious risk factors, so are lower socioeconomic status, lack of higher education and being a member of an ethnic minority, depending on the country, WHO research shows.

“Most drowning incidents happen when people never intend to get into the water in the first place,” says Dale, who was awarded Swim Teacher of the Year by Swim England in 2021.

In December 2019, three members of the same Black British family – a 53-year-old father and his two children – died in a swimming pool at a resort in Costa del Sol, Spain, Reuters reported. The father and his 16-year-old son had reportedly leapt into the water to try to save his nine-year-old daughter, who was drowning.

Danielle Obe is the co-founder and chair of the Black Swimming Association (BSA).

Louis Leeson/CNN

Danielle Obe is the co-founder and chair of the BSA. She told CNN Sport that the Costa del Sol deaths prompted her to establish the BSA in March 2020, alongside Olympic swimmer Alice Dearing, journalist Seren Jones and songwriter, rapper and producer Ed Accura.

“This was devastating because these families were actually acquainted to me and they were from my local community,” Obe says. “(At) that point, I called Alice and Seren, and I said, ‘We’ve been talking about doing something for our community. We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to do it now. We cannot keep recovering bodies.’”

“We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to do it now. We cannot keep recovering bodies.”

Danielle Obe, Black Swimming Association (BSA) chair and co-founder

“It’s no longer just about that lack of representation,” Obe adds.

“It’s now about saving lives, vital water safety, education for all. Swimming is an intervention. Swimming is a life skill.”

However, there is still a lack of data when it comes to drowning-related deaths by ethnicity in the UK, says Obe.

“At the moment, we don’t know how much of a disparity there is between drowning and fatalities, aquatic fatalities for different communities in the UK because, up until now, drowning data isn’t really captured by ethnicity, which is another point, another issue that the BSA is looking to tackle.”

‘People just don’t think Black people should swim’

Dearing, the first Black female swimmer to represent Britain at the Olympics when she competed at Tokyo 2020, “implores” people to learn to swim.

“I have been quite torn between the amazing achievement of being the first Black woman to represent GB in swimming but wanting to be my own person, my own athlete, who’s known for being an athlete and not for her race and her sport combined together,” she tells CNN Sport.

“I take the two of them just as they are – kind of like separate things. I’m trying to be the best athlete and best role model that I can be to show people that they can do the sport, that the sport is for everybody.”

At the age of 24, Dearing was making history in Japan and became a beacon of hope for young people – especially Black girls – who wanted to break into the sport.

But her personal triumph also drew attention to the institutional access gap for people of color in swimming.

Alice Dearing co-founded the BSA with Obe and several others to help encourage more minority communities to take up swimming.

Louis Leeson/CNN

“Fortunately, for myself, I haven’t come across any barriers at the level I’m at currently,” Dearing says.

“But I have faced barriers when I was younger and issues where people just don’t think Black people should swim, or do swim, or think that we’re better suited to other sports and so shouldn’t even learn to swim or attempt swimming in the first place.”

CNN reached out to the International Swimming Federation (FINA), Sport England and USA Swimming requesting a breakdown of Black and ethnic minority participation in swimming at grassroots and professional levels of the sport. However, they told CNN they were unable to provide such data.

FINA – the global governing body for swimming – told CNN it does not have a breakdown of the ethnicities of swimmers at a grassroots or elite level.

FINA said in 2021 it allocated $6.6 million towards development programs for distribution among all national federations and continental associations, while also pushing for diversity in the sport through its “Swimming for All, Swimming for Life” program.

“FINA remains fully committed to non-discrimination,” the organization said to CNN in a statement. “FINA continues to work hard to ensure that the global aquatics community is a place where all athletes, coaches and administrators are treated equally.

“Work will continue to develop and grow with the support of members of the aquatics community as we strive to be at the forefront of this essential area,” FINA added.

“I have faced barriers when I was younger and issues where people just don’t think Black people should swim, or do swim, or think that we’re better suited to other sports and so shouldn’t even learn to swim or attempt swimming in the first place.”

Alice Dearing, Olympic swimmer and BSA co-founder

Sport England told CNN in a statement that it is “committed to increasing investment in facilities and organisations across England to try to level up access to good quality sports and activities.”

“Barriers to getting active persist and have even been exacerbated for some disadvantaged groups – like women, people with long-term health conditions, disabled people, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups,” the statement added.

Sport England said in May it announced further funding that brings its total investment in its 121 partners to more than £550 million ($670 million), which they’ve selected “due to their unique position to tackle entrenched activity inequalities and influence positive change throughout the sector, their own networks and beyond.”

“It’s not all about the economic side of things. It is also about getting people to feel comfortable with putting their kids in swim lessons and in competitive swimming so that they can then go and do other aquatic-based sports,” Joel Shinofield, the managing director of sport development at USA Swimming, told CNN during a phone call.

USA Swimming is a membership-serviced organization that has over 3,100 clubs and more than 400,000 members, according to the official website.

“Our goal is to facilitate opportunities and make sure they’re good ones. While our clubs are the ones that do that on the local level, the resources, guidance, support, financial investment that we provide can shift who those opportunities can be provided to and more broadly create access,” he added.

Shinofield said that USA Swimming has established a 10-year initiative that will grant $1 million to develop learn-to-swim and competitive opportunities for communities served by Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The program was announced in 2021, according to the USA Swimming official website.

Serving underrepresented communities

From representing their organization at the UK’s first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Summit For Sport in Birmingham, England earlier this year to facilitating swimming classes in Hackney – one of the most deprived boroughs in London – Obe hopes that the BSA will help bridge the barrier through community-level engagement.

“That community engagement really is to build trust, accountability and collaboration with disenfranchised communities and the sector,” says Obe.

“Only in understanding these attitudes and understanding some of the barriers that preclude our communities from engaging in aquatics can we begin to drive change.”

In August 2021, the BSA announced it would conduct a research program with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the University of Portsmouth, exploring the behaviors and barriers that prevent African, Caribbean and Asian communities from swimming.

“There’s so much joy that can be had once you learn to swim, once you’ve abandoned those fears and you can get in the water.”

Omie Dale, Swimunity Director and Instructor

Speaking about the program, Obe says: “It’s important for us to inspire confidence with African, Caribbean and Asian communities, and the only way we’re able to do that is to ensure that we understand where these communities are in the first place and understand why they don’t engage in aquatics, why we don’t see the representation pool side and why we don’t even see the representation within some aquatic organizations.”

Dale also volunteers with Mental Health Swims, a grassroots organization that facilitates swimming meet-ups for people struggling with their mental health. As part of her work for the organization, she coordinates swim events in south London to help swimmers access the mental health benefits of the sport. She also volunteers for Pride in Water, a network that aims to increase LGBTQ+ representation in swimming.

‘The future is bright’

Dearing says that despite the racial and economic barriers to swimming for African, Caribbean and Asian communities, she’s still optimistic about the changing landscape of the sport.

“I really think if anything is going to change, it’s going to be now, it’s going to be over the next couple of years,” she says. “Each story is different, each person is different and has to be understood in their own way, and there’s nothing wrong with that, that’s just another challenge that we have to face and we’re up for it.

“It’s tough – it’s not a quick fix, but the future is bright.

“I like to feel that I’m giving something back to swimming and, hopefully, giving something to the Black community to hopefully achieve, strive for and change the way that Black people are viewed in swimming and the way Black people view swimming.

“It’s a double-edged sword; I absolutely love doing it. Sometimes, it’s really frightening and daunting, but if I’m trying to make the world a better place, then sometimes you got to step out and scare yourself.”

CNN’s Krystina Shveda contributed to this report.