As I watch the Olympics, I have been paying close attention to most of the competitions. I see Serena, Venus, Cullen Jones and the USA basketball team but where are the African American gymnasts?
I cannot tell you the number of times that I have seen little African American boys flipping on dirty mattresses or the concrete like the Olympic gymnasts last night. They didn’t have a spotter or the proper equipment. They use the fences or the monkey bars on the playground as parallel bars. These boys have a natural ability to flip without having received one class! In other countries they seek out children like this and work with them for free until they are ready for the Olympics.
With the demise of a “good” physical education program in the inner city schools, will inner city children ever have a fair chance to compete in the Olympics? To show what they can do?
Let’s get this straight, this is not a slap against our current athletes. They are excellent at what they do and they are representing the United States quite well. But at a time when we don’t want to leave NO CHILD BEHIND, why are we leaving behind potential award winning Olympians?
This is not about coming from a single parent household either because Michael Phelps- Gold Medal Olympics swimmer was a product of a single parent household and his mother put him in swimming at an early age because he was rambunctious. Look at the phenomenal results of channeling that rambunctious energy into a sport.
In the inner cities, you see many basketball and football programs but what about the tennis, gymnastics, swimming, kayak, fencing, golf etc. programs? Are African American children ONLY suppose to play basketball and football and run? We even have an indoor ice skating rink in our urban neighborhood and guess who practices in it? Suburban schools. No one thinks that AFrican American children can play hockey or ice skate?
