thirty ninth Black History Invitational tackles disparities in swimming – NBC4 Washington

D.C. is dwelling to the nation’s premier minority swim occasion — the Black History Invitational Swim Meet.

The meet attracts in additional than 1,000 swimmers from throughout the nation every year. This yr, 1,300 swimmers from 38 states got here out — a document for the occasion.

“They love to swim and we love to see it,” mentioned Thennie Freeman, the director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.

Logan Bunn, who’s from Ward 8, has been collaborating the previous couple of years.

“I primarily learned how to swim simply because my mom wanted me to do a sport, especially because a lot of Black kids don’t know how to swim,” she mentioned.

Former Mayor Marion Barry based the invitational to interrupt down racial obstacles in swimming.

“We try our best to build our African American swimmers,” Freeman mentioned. “There still is a disparity nationally about African American youth.”

Drowning dying charges for Black individuals below age 30 are one and half instances larger than charges of white individuals, in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disparities are highest amongst Black youngsters between ages 5-9. The charge is 2.6 instances larger than charges of white individuals, and for Black youngsters between ages 10-14, it’s 3.6 instances larger.

That’s why the dad and mom of Joi Webb made certain to get her classes early.

“We saw some numbers of the amount of Black kids that drown, and we knew we didn’t want our daughter to be a statistic,” Rosalind Balkcom, Joi’s mother, mentioned.

The household traveled all the way in which from Jacksonville, Florida so Joi may take part on this competitors for the primary time.

“We didn’t even know that there was such an invitational swim meet such as this, and we just thought it would be a great opportunity for her,” Balkcom mentioned

The invitational continues on Sunday. If you wish to watch from dwelling, there’s a livestream.