NEW YORK—Lia Neal, only the second African-American female swimmer to compete in the Olympics, won the bronze medal in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay in London Saturday night.
Neal, 17, began taking swimming lessons for fun at age 6, and started training competitively at age 8. She has trained at the nonprofit Asphalt Green in Brooklyn for the past nine years.
The 4×100 freestyle relay includes teams of 4 from each country. The United States women, including Neal, finished at 3 minutes 34.24 seconds, just over a minute behind first place Australia (3:33.15), and less than a half-second behind second place the Netherlands (3:33.79). The three teams opened a gap from the rest of the contenders. China, fourth place, was more than two seconds behind the United States.
Each swimmer swims 100 meters. Neal swam her first 50 meters in 25.91 seconds, and her second 50 meters in 27.84 seconds.
Swimming with Neal were two Californians, Missy Franklin, a 17-year-old from Pasadena, and Jessica Hardy, a 25-year-old from Orange; and Allison Schmitt, a 22-year-old from Pittsburgh.
Asphalt Green congratulated the team and Neal on Twitter. Neal has already inspired other young people in New York. Head coach at Asphalt Green, Rachel Stratton-Mills, said at an event on July 5 reported by The Epoch Times, that she had met an African-American mother earlier that day at the pool. The mother has two daughters, with “hair just like Lia’s.” Both girls wanted to take up swimming after seeing Neal on television.
“That’s what it’s about,” Stratton-Mills said, “the ability to say ‘I look like that person, or I’m from Brooklyn—or another inner city that people don’t think of as a swimming hub—but if Lia Neal can do it, I can do it as well.'”
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