LeBron James is helping teach children to swim, with some major help from Olympian Simone Manuel.
Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual medal in swimming at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Since then, she’s partnered with the USA Swimming Foundation and the Make a Splash campaign to promote water safety for kids.
The program is part of Lebron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, which hosted their first-ever week-long summer camp focused entirely on swimming. A group of 140 third and fourth graders participated, with 125 of the attendees having never set foot in water before.
Every day, about two children aged 14 and under die from unintentional drowning in the U.S. In fact, many children do not know how to swim: 64% of African American, 45% of Hispanic/Latino and 40% of Caucasian children have little to no swimming ability.
“This is extremely important because swimming is a lifesaving skill,” Manuel says. “No other sport can really say that. It’s awesome that the sport that I do can save their life.”
Main Source: ESPN
