2011 National Diversity Select Camp- Olympic Training Center- Colorado Springs, CO



The future looks bright with a great group of kids and an inspirational coaching staff here at the Olympic Training Center for the 2011 National Diversity Select Camp.  I feel that each classroom and water session have met the purpose of the camp, which is to help instill a vision of success and inspire athletes from ethnically underrepresented populations to become leaders in the sport of swimming. …

 Not everyone will graduate from high school or go to college.  Not everyone will want to become a competitive swimmer.   So what is the point? 

Some will.

I believe in the dignity of giving of oneself to make things better.  If I can improve a stroke, or save a life from drowning, or show a newly arrived family a little about my…

Courtesy of Peter H. Bick

From SwimmingWorldMagazine.com:



Dax Hill joins The Morning Swim Show today to talk about his performances at the NCAA championships..



Hill, a sophomore at the…

I am participating in the International Drowning Prevention Conference in Vietnam next week.  There will be over 400 participants from 50 countries gathering together to share information, to learn - and to develop a global platform regarding preventing…

I am super excited about getting back into rowing this spring.  Last Wednesday, I signed up for a "guest row" at my local club.  As soon as we got the shells down to the docks, placed them in the water, and began to lock our oars into the oarlocks, lightning struck. I was so sad :( However, we quickly made good use of being at the boathouse at 5:30am by rowing on the indoor machines (ergometers, a.k.a. "ergs"). I wasn't half as shabby as I anticipated lol ;-)

Well, tonight I…

Sweep rowing isn't like riding a bicycle. Once you get past training wheels, find balance and work under your own power, you're all set for life long recreational enjoyment. Doesn't matter how long you've been away from it, just as long as you know the basics, all you've gotta do is to get on and ride. You can still get from here to there without much muscle memory recall. And you don't have other cyclists depending upon you to get…

A really nice person from HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel contacted a while ago us about a story they were working on. They had come across the recent research and were appalled by the raw numbers reflecting the drowning rate of Blacks and Hispanics. We often get calls from media folks who are pursuing their stories. We welcome these calls and always hope that they will come see our program, our kids, our families, our volunteers, their families, our coaches and our community.…

As the Executive Director and owner of the only travel and learning adventure program of its kind in the nation for girls 11-16, you can probably only imagine the questions and comments I hear from people when I tell them about my…

Each LSC in the Eastern Zone is invited to send 2 athletes, the LSC Diversity Coordinator and one coach to the very first Eastern Zone Diversity Select camp being hosted by Middle Atlantic Swimming and held at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 16-19, 2011.…

Every week I see the same little boy, around 4, wailing through his swim lesson.  Always the same routine - he enters the pool area and starts crying.  He cries for 30 minutes straight, quite pathetically, and stops as soon as the towel is wrapped around him and he’s walking calmly into the…

From USASwimming.org, Mike Gustafson:

Do you remember your first time meeting a sports hero? When you walked down the street and saw Tom Brady? Maybe you were a kid. Suddenly, up close and personal, your favorite sporting superstar looked somehow different. 

 

More human. More approachable. More like you. 

 

Every four years, television brings the…

Congrats to all the athletes who were selected to attend the 2011 National Diversity Select Camp. The 2011 National Diversity Select Camp will take place May 5-8, 2011 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

When my son was about one we were on one of those turbulent flights where you suspect even the pilot is white-knuckling it.  I made one of my better parenting decisions at that moment.  I looked at him and said ‘this is the fun part, where the plane goes bumpity-bump!’  And, here’s the…