In a day of stupid crap, I present you with the latest one. The International Swimming Federation has decided to ban swim caps that are specifically made for natural hair styles. You can see what it looks like pictured above.
A bit of background on me. I am a black swimmer. Butterflier to be exact. I swam and played water polo in high school. I was on the D team for a national ranked team in college. In adulthood, I belong to a master swim club. Swimming is a lifelong passion of mine. I’m also one of the few swimmers of color.
I have been heartened in recent years at the growing diversity in the sport. Swimming traditionally has been a very white, wealthy sport at a competitive level. This has to do with daily access to pools.
One of the biggest barriers is hair. The statistics on the ability to swim is pretty appalling for people of color. 64% of black children can’t swim. And if you dig deeper into what it actually means to be able to swim...It’s even worse. See this viral thread.
When I use to lifeguard in HS, I did so for two pools. A wealthy one and a poor one. The poor pool shallow end was PACKED every day. And with who...Tons of black girls who didn’t feel comfortable enough to go into the deep end and ALSO who didn’t want to get their hair wet.
The reason why this swim cap ban is BULLSHIT is that it gives the swimmer absolutely no advantage. It does exactly the opposite. Swimmer will wax their entire body (including eyebrows) to get a micro second of an advantage in the pool. In addition to wearing three swim caps to flatten your hair, you then shimmy into the tightest swim suit that would give Spanx a run for its money.
This is the definition of gatekeeping. It’s not going to stop people of color swimming. We are coming and we are good.
