February 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 9

Edito r 's L etter

O

The Gold at Home

ur cover story this month explores one of the more glamorous aspects

of parks and recreation-competitive swimming. In the ever increasingly
complex and sophisticated world of competitive sports, it seemed logical to examine where parks and recreation fit in. In swimming, everything begins
and ends with the Olympics, a world in which the selection and training process
can be perceived as light years from everyday public pools. To our delight, we
learned just how integral parks and recreation programs can be to American's
highest sporting aspirations. Nobody embodies this more than Sabir Muhammad.

To say Sabir got a crack at the Olympics the hard
way isn't fully accurate. Rather, parks and recreation was the only way an African American of
extremely modest family means from inner-city
-A tlanta, Georgia, could get on the competitive
track. You'll read how as a youngster Sabir decided he would one day compete at the highest levels. But first he and his friends had to create a swim
team, complete with coaches and infrastructure.
They got the help through Atlanta's parks and recreation program. They got to swim, compete, and
against many odds, excelled. Particularly Sabir,
who would get support from groups such as USA
Swimming which helped him go even further.
Along the way, Sabir garnered a Stanford scholarship, medals, and a lot of records. The Olympics
eluded him on his first try, but now at age 33 Sabir
is training for another go-the London Olympics
in 2012.
Because Sabir maintains such close ties with his
original swim team, the Dolphins, he finds he can

give back to the sport and his community. He's particularly involved in getting more kids to swim for
fun and safety. In its most recent statistics posted
online (2005), the Centers for Disease Control reports that close to 10 people drowned a day. African Americans were 1.3 times as likely to drown
as whites. For African American children that rate
approached 3.2 times the rate for white children.
As the first stage of his competitive career wound
down, Sabir formed an Atlanta program to address just this problem. His Swim for Life endeavor eventually merged with USA Swimming's Make
A Splash but he still remains active. " Learning to
swim should be a fundamental part of education,
because it has a huge impact on the quality of life, "
he told us.
In a time of radical budget cutting, it's more important than ever that we be able justify the worth of
our field from City Hall to Congress. Sabir Muhammad's experience reflects yet one more benefit of
parks and recreation to society.


Phil Hayward
Chief Communications Officer

	

www.NRPA .ORG

February 2010

Parks & Recreation	

7



February 2010 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2010 - Parks & Recreation

February 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 1
February 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 2
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