I thought I’d have a lot to report from the Olympic trials. How about that Michael Phelps? Katie Hoff? hmmm, so I’ll wait until I see colors. ..

The movie Pride told part of Jim Ellis’ story. Brielle White, one of his swimmers, may well tell another part. Pictured here with coaches Ellis (right) and Tracy Freeland, Brielle White graduated from the University of Virginia in 2006 and trains every day with the PDR (Philadelphia Department of Recreation) swim club, the Olympics her goal.

White says she started swimming like my friend Char–her mother threw her in the water when she was 3. By 6, she was swimming competitively with Jim Ellis’ team. Brielle White has been a nationally ranked backstroker since she was 9 years old.

The 5’10 swimmer is used to being the top swimmer in her club; Brielle White was a seven-time All-American at Virginia. She knows how hard she will have to work to make the Olympic team, and has made the shifts necessary to prepare.

Like Cullen Jones, Brielle Smith started out swimming on an inner city team, to go on to be the only black face on their college team. She knows a little something about sub-par facilities. Excellent coaching made up for what the pool lacked. For all the talk about minority swimmers’ lack of access and facilities, both of these swimmers have made it happen, and hope to inspire others to follow them.

This Olympic swim trial promises to be an interesting one.

If this doesn’t whet your appetite for Cullen Jones, stay tuned.

I was tired of always ending up in the beginners group at girl scout camp. The first day of camp, you take a swim test, and that determined what color swim cap you got, and what kind of boat you could learn to navigate during camp. The red cap was for beginners, and they got to use a canoe. The yellow cap was for the intermediate group; they used a rowboat. The blue cap was for the advanced group. They got to use the sailboat.

The highest level I ever reached was the yellow cap. I never could get the hang of swimming without stopping and standing on the bottom of the lake, and forget about going in deep water! It wasn’t going to happen.

The summer of 1979 was a turning point for me. I used to hang out with my neighbors all summer long, and sometimes someone’s parents would take us to the beach. That’s when you’d see a big division between the swimmers (Charlotte and her family), and the non-swimmers (everybody else). That summer, I decided to take my non-swimming situation in my own hands and do something about it. A group of non-swimmers, (3 kids from one family, and my brother and I) decided to walk a couple miles to the city pool for lessons. We’d take $1 and ourselves down there to do something about not knowing how to swim. It killed me to leave Char behind, but that was our divide; she didn’t need this like I did.

to be continued. . .

btw, the first Black man to win Olympic gold in swimming was Anthony Ervin, who tied with Gary Hall jr. for first place in the 50 free at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Austrailia.

It is good to have a goal, direction. When I started swimming, my goal was small—to be able to swim 100 yards without stopping. That was actually not that easy at first. I began to understand what my kids went through in swimming. After I achieved that goal, I wanted to be able to swim 300 yards. My last achieved goal was 2000 yards.

Somewhere along the line I decided to swim elementary back stroke in order to keep moving, keep breathing, and keep reaching towards my goal. I got used to the low level fatigue you have for the whole workout.

Now I found out I was on the right track. According to this website, that’s the way you build up to swimming a mile. Swim any stroke, later to be substituted with crawl, or freestyle, as it’s called in competitive swimming. I have been really slow to do that part. I have gotten used to all the elementary back stroke, or what I call my cool-down laps.

But the swim a mile in 6 weeks program looks pretty doable. I have been off my swim schedule since I had a baby in March. I will try this program and write about my progress when I get back to the pool.