3 Women That Helped Pave the Way for Women in Swimming

As a current advocate for minorities in swimming, Maritza Correia has truly gone above and beyond to fight her battle. At just six years old, Maritza Correia was diagnosed with scoliosis and decided to start competitively swimming as her treatment. By 2004, she became the first African American swimmer to set an American and World swimming record.

In 2008, Dara Torres made history by swimming in her fifth Olympic games. Not only was this the most years that any swimmer had ever competed at the Olympics, but she was also the oldest female swimmer to compete at the Olympic level. So why is this a big deal? Dara set a precedence that it doesn’t matter if you’re a mother or if you’re no longer “young” in the sport, you can still do it just as well.

At just 20-years-old, Simone Manuel is not only using her Olympic qualifying skills in order to inspire younger African American girls like herself to join the sport of competitive swimming, but she is also trying to use her Olympic Gold in order to inspire “hope and change” into her community in the middle of police brutality and the fight for equality.