AWER Chair-Elect Christopher Hempfling led our meeting and presented Ms. Maritza McClendon, an Olympic Silver Medalist in swimming at the 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES in Athens, Greece – and the first women of color to do so in Olympic History. She also broke several world records and won eleven national and world medals throughout her legendary career. Amazingly, at age six she was diagnosed with severe scoliosis and swimming was recommended as a good support for her to participate because it was thought this activity could help ameliorate the effect of the disease, primarily because swimming could support good posture and increase flexibility. Plus these activities could avoid the necessity of surgery.

Born in Puerto Rico to parents from Guyana, McClendon began swimming competitively after her initial swim lessons. When her family moved to Tampa, Florida, she faced significant challenges as one of the few Black swimmers on her team, experiencing discrimination and isolation. Despite these obstacles, she excelled in high school swimming, winning six state titles and earning a scholarship to the University of Georgia. Her first Olympic trials ended in disappointment when she placed 34th, leading to harsh criticism from her father who called her "an embarrassment to the family." This experience led to depression, but with support from teammates and coaches, she recommitted to her goals. Over the next four years, she became a 27-time All-American with 11 NCAA titles, broke world and American records as the first Black person to do so, and ultimately qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where she won her silver medal.

Meritza enthusiastically promotes swimming, but expressing concern that 64% of African American children don't know how to swim. She encourages adults to become swimmers because without adults’ encouragement, Black and Brown children will continue to lag. She’s also committed to water safety education and more swimming accessibility for Black and Brown communities.

She emphasized how important it is for society and especially athletes of color to overcome the adversity and discrimination in competitive sports. Conversely, she’s watched how children of color feel bigger possibilities of accomplishment by seeing her as a champion especially when explaining the difficulties she’s had to overcome: physical challenges, people telling her as a Black did not belong, and even from her father’s rejection of her when she did not succeed. Accordingly, Meritza is very specific about not allowing others to define what one can achieve. And she strongly believes in the importance of community and teammate support.

In response to a question from AWER member Don Schewe about her ethnicity and her relationship with her father, Maritza explained, “My family background is Portuguese, but my parents and grandparents are from Guyana in South America. I identify as a Black woman raised in Caribbean culture. Regarding my father, our relationship was difficult - his love felt conditional based on my performance. When I qualified for the 2004 Olympics, I asked him not to attend but called him after I made the team. Before he passed away from prostate cancer in 2008, he told my mom he was always proud of me.”

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AWER Keyway Speaker Reporters: Christopher Hempfling, Jared Evans and Neil Shorthouse