Inability to swim closes doors for many minorities.

While drowning is the biggest risk that minority children face due to lack of swimming skills, it is not the only consequence. Missing that one ability closes a multitude of doors for minorities that whites take for granted.

"There are so many careers that will forever be closed if you don't learn that skill," says Alison Terry, a biracial competitive swimmer and ocean lifeguard for the San Diego Lifeguard Service. "From being a swim or diving coach to managing an aquatics facility, being in the Navy, being a lifeguard or a marine biologist, or even learning to scuba dive, there are all these healthy opportunities that are being missed."

For instance, at Chicago State University, would-be P.E. teachers must know how to swim, and many black students can't, says Gall H. Ito, an assistant professor in the university's College of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. That means they are unable to get their certification and are deterred from a profession in which they would otherwise succeed.

In addition, competitive swimming can provide minority kids with an avenue to higher education.

"We've been able to help kids get some type of financial assistance and scholarships to some of the colleges, especially when they have been in the swim program, about $1.5 million in scholarships," says Tommy Jackson, head coach of the City of Atlanta Dolphins Swim Team, a inner-city swim program of the Atlanta Department of Parks and Cultural Affairs. "Some of those kids who receive those athletic scholarships probably would never have received those benefits were it not for the swimming programs."

Indeed, a lack of swimming bars minorities from entering dozens of paths. For instance, in the 1980s and early '90s, Army recruiters had a hard time getting minorities into the Special Forces. Blacks were trying out in large numbers, but during testing, 15 percent of of them failed required swimming drills where cadets had to swim twice across an Olympic pool wearing their military gear. Less than 3 percent of whites failed.

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