Paralympian Jamal Hill Buoys Rockaway YMCA Swim Program

By Kami-Leigh Agard

Flanked by elected officials, community leaders and advocates, last Wednesday, December 10, paralympic swimming medalist, Jamal Hill, presented the Rockaway YMCA with a $5K check to help anchor the facility’s swim program for second graders at P.S. 197.

According to Aerial Mathis, executive director of the Rockaway Y—on a hyper local level—Hill’s donation helps propel the YMCA’s nationwide initiative to hone in on providing swim classes and lifesaving water safety skills to second grade students at 1,600 YMCAs across the country. “With Jamal’s donation, we’re able to pick not just one, but two second-grade classes at local elementary school, P.S. 197, in addition to the funding we received from Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers for second graders at P.S. 183,” she said. Hill’s donation will help pay for supplies and staffing needed for the swim program offered free of charge to the students. Hill also donated a $5,000 check earlier in the week to the NYC Parks Department to further the agency’s swim safety efforts. As for how Hill, hailing from Inglewood, an inner city in Los Angeles, Calif, discovered Rockaway, is through the power of social media multiplied by local dad, president of civic, the Heart of Rockaway (THOR), Edwin Williams’ determination to help his two sons excel at competitive swimming.

Hill is a Team USA swimmer who won a bronze medal in the men’s 50m freestyle at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, setting an American record and becoming one of the first Black American swimmers to medal recently. That journey began when Hill was still in diapers. He shared, “I was in ‘Mommy and Me’ swimming classes at 10 months old. By 10 years old I was already a competitive swimmer.”

However, his journey to becoming an elite athlete was challenged by numerous currents. At age 10, Hill faced temporary paralysis, which led to a diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a neurological condition that affects peripheral nerves and makes simple tasks like walking and running a challenge. “With this condition, a lot of people have to wear leg braces or are partially wheelchair bound. From my knees to the soles of my feet, I’ve got zero percent nerve capacity. Like wiggling my toes, building calf muscle, basic coordination, it’s not so much there. So, it feels a lot like I’m walking on stilts all the time,” he said. But in the water, he found relief. “Hydrotherapy is very real. The individuals that that I tend to see with the most mobility, they have regular aquatics regimens. It’s wonderful for circulation for neurodivergent people, and people with more physical debilitating cases of neuropathy,” Hill said.

Despite the setback, Hill overcame the challenges that came with his condition and changed course. He embraced the Paralympic movement, finding freedom and purpose in adaptive sports, and through hard work and perseverance, at age 22, earned the bronze medal in the 50-meter freestyle event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo.

He laughed, “They didn’t just give me the bronze medal. With everything I went through with my condition, the intense training, winning the medal was very validating, even just to make it to Tokyo. I dropped out of college a few years earlier. I had put everything into this for my home community and family. It was a relief that I was able to have something physical to really validate all the sacrifices.”

With his eyes already on competing in the 2028 Paralympics happening in his hometown, Los Angeles, Hill is training hard, but with his organization, Swim Up Hill Foundation, is also racing to implement swim and water safety programs across the country.

He said, “Just in San Diego, we’re teaching 400 students how to swim in the school district. Our goal is to teach a million people a year how to swim around the world.”

As for what led Hill from Inglewood, California to Rockaway, two oceanside communities on opposite sides of the country, was a passion to mentor local Edwin Williams’ sons, Tyler and Christian, in their love for competitive swimming.

Williams said, “Eight years ago, I started following Jamal on Instagram and saw a young man who learned how to walk again, overcame what he was dealing with and went on to shatter swimming records and win a medal at the Paralympics. He would share tips, videos, even do Zoom calls with my sons. Just this past week, he spent an hour with Christian, and just with that personal investment, Christian won his 50-meter backstroke meet. His mentorship from the other side of the country means so much to me. I’m so proud of Jamal. If I had a little brother, I would want him to be just like Jamal. Plus, he’s serious about water safety; to prevent drownings.”

For his advocacy on providing swim instruction and building ocean safety skills for underserved communities, and disability inclusion through sport, Hill was named one of the United Nations’ 17 Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals.

Hill said, “Before I joined team USA Paralympics team, before the real popularity, before I was standing on the podium with a medal around my neck, I said to myself, ‘I can do this for 10 more years. I think I can make Team USA, go through a few games, make it to LA ’28.’ However, I just felt I have more to offer myself, my community at home, my parents, my global community. I don’t want to be just another handsome, smiling face with a trophy.

“True champions don’t just champion themself. True champions champion causes,” he said.

For more info about Jamal Hill and his organization, Swim Up Hill and how you can help, visit: https://www.swimuphill.org/