Toni Davis had heard about this “Martiza Correia” and wanted
to learn more about her.
“To be honest,” said Davis, a U.S. Paralympic swimmer, “I
did not even know Martiza was black. Then I looked her up
online, and there were all these stories about this black
swimmer going to Athens. So we are out there.”
By “we,” Davis says she means black swimmers. Davis said
she has been pounding the pavement since competing at the
2004 Paralympic Games in Athens to promote the sport and
encourage minority swimmers to give the water a try.
“A lot of athletes get into the water for physical
therapy coming back from an injury,” Davis said. “Once they
get in, they realize how great it is, as a way of training.”
Davis said she recently saw a group of athletes testing
the water.
“It was a football team, mostly black athletes,” she
said. “Swimming is such a great way to get in shape, to
build your endurance and strengthen your muscles. And who
knows, maybe once someone is in the water and they find they
have some talent, they can stick with it.”
Ah, football, and the other “major” sports – Davis said
the media attention those sports get, plus the fact that she
believes swimming is still seen, to a degree, as a “rich
sport in the minority community,” have kept the growth of
minority swimmers slower than it would otherwise be.
At the same time, Davis gets encouraged every time she is
training with coach Solomon Robinson at her hometown club in
Largo, Md., where she swims for an entirely black team. She
said talking about the sport to minority kids – reaching
them at a young age – is a key to stimulate growth in
numbers, and also to let the kids know they have other
options besides football, basketball and baseball at a young
age. She also points out to kids that swimming is something
they can do their whole life, whereas several other
mainstream, more well-known sports, for the most part, have
ending points as far as competitive participation.
“What we need to do for minority kids is have a program
designed that is low-cost but gets them into the water, gets
them the instruction they need, so they can see the
opportunity is there,” Davis said. “That way they’ll also be
able to find out if they have the ability.”
Davis, who has one arm, swam collegiately for Susquehanna
Selinsgrove University in Pennsylvania, a Division III
program. While she admits she’s still surprised when people
do a double-take when they notice she’s black, she said she
caught herself doing the same thing at the Middle Atlantic
Conference Championship.
“I saw another black swimmer, and I went up to her,”
Davis said. “I told her how neat it was to see another black
swimmer, and she said, ‘Yeah, it’s cool.’ I’m not afraid to
speak out and get black swimmers more attention, more
participation. At the same time, I also want to get more
notice for the Paralympics, because still it’s a case where
not a lot of people even know this kind of competition and
opportunity exists.”
Davis sees Michael Phelps as a great recruiting tool for
swimmers of all races and ethnic backgrounds.
“Having someone like Michael is good for everyone to
learn about swimming,” Davis said. “And who is Michael
Phelps always mentioning as his sports role model? Michael
Jordan, who is black. So this is something we can work
toward together, just like in other sports.”
As Davis said, she still gets more attention for swimming
with one arm than for the color of her skin. So while other
black swimmers have to get used to swimming in a
predominantly white environment, Davis’s attention comes for
a different reason most times.
“Some people think they should be able to beat me – not
because I’m black, but because I have just one arm,” she
says laughing, “but I have made some able-bodied swimmers
face the fact that they’ve gotten beat by a girl with one
arm.”
And some day, Davis hopes the swimmers from her club back
home in Maryland, and her teammates on the U.S. Paralymic
Olympic squad, will be pointed at for the common bond they
share, not the color of their kind, or how many limbs they
have: But for the love of their sport.
“The thing is, I get more looks because I have one arm,”
Davis said. “So maybe with that, and being black, I can
reach even more people. At least that’s my goal.”