Lia neal biography

Neal was 17 years old when she became the second female African-American swimmer to qualify for a U. Olympic swimming team. She was also highlighted for the geographical diversity she brought to the U. Olympic swimming team as she was not from a warm-weather state, such as Florida or California , where U. Olympic swimmers typically come from.

Swimming the third leg, Neal had a split of Swimming the lead-off leg in the heats, Neal posted a time of Neal was 17 years old when she became the second female African-American swimmer to qualify for a U. Olympic swimming team. She was also highlighted for the geographical diversity she brought to the U. Olympic swimming team as she was not from a warm-weather state, such as Florida or California, where U.

Olympic swimmers typically come from. Neal agreed. Because of the abbreviated timeline, Neal eschewed building up her aerobic base and focused only on sprinting before heading to Budapest, where the entirety of the ISL season took place. Over the course of the ISL meets, she gradually found her racing form again, and she even mastered some skills that she had never perfected before, like flipturns and kicking.

Neal helped the Cali Condors capture the ISL league championship, but the experience still reinforced her decision to step away from the competitive side of swimming. Before she qualified for her first Olympic team, Neal was oblivious to her status as a trailblazer, a minority swimmer excelling in a mostly white sport. Even while her competitors at higher-level meets were mostly white, Neal never paid much attention to her status until she qualified for the Olympics in London and was asked what it meant for her to make history.

Over the next decade, Neal realized how important it was for young black swimmers to see swimmers who look like them competing and winning at the elite level. Seeing that representation can help instill the dream of competing at the Olympics and winning national championships, and it make those accomplishments feel attainable for minority swimmers, compared to only seeing white swimmers at the top.

In , Neal was part of a historic finish at the NCAA championships, when Simone Manuel , Neal and Natalie Hinds finished in the top three spots in the free, making it the first-ever for black swimmers at that meet. But obviously we have some time until that. In the summer of , racial equality once again became a central topic of conversation in the United States after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Neal brought those conversations to the swimming community when she and fellow Olympian Jacob Pebley launched Swimmers for Change.

That turned into a weeks-long series of webcasts where the duo reached out to national team swimmers, and those swimmers appeared on the webcasts to help raise money for various charitable organizations that promoted inclusion. Basically, I just did what made sense, and that was to create a platform to help give swimmers the space to talk about it.

She wants to work towards more water safety programs for minority children and towards creating accessibility and resources for minority swimmers looking to get into swimming and help them reach the elite level by creating a strong sense of community. She wants to make the path for black swimmers trying to reach the elite level a lot smoother, with the eventual goal of having a lot more black swimmers become Olympians.

Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. American swimmer born Not to be confused with Leah Neale. Medal record. Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. See also: Swimming at the Summer Olympics.

Lia neal biography

Personal life [ edit ]. Sponsorships [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Retrieved August 6, The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, July 13, Retrieved July 3, Retrieved August 12, USA Swimming. Retrieved July 4, Retrieved July 9, The Philadelphia Sunday Sun. July 8, Olympics at Sports-Reference. Sports Reference LLC.

Archived from the original on December 4, Atlanta Black Star. July 5, July 20, Catholic New York. Retrieved July 22, March 23, Retrieved July 2, News One Pakistani TV channel. March 24, Retrieved April 12, Retrieved April 1,