Meet Jamal Hill of Swim Up Hill

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamal Hill.

Jamal, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am an educator and Team USA Paralympic swimmer based out of Inglewood, California competing in the 2021 Paralympics in Japan and running my business Swim Up Hill. I am currently ranked #1 in the United States for several swimming events, and #7 in the word for the Men’s S10 50 meter freestyle.

My mother never learned how to swim before I was born but she made sure that I did learn from an early age through Mommy & Me programs at our local YMCA. I swam competitively in the age group from ages six to ten. At age ten, I took a six years hiatus from swimming due to complications of my congenital neuropathy disease, Charcot-Marie-Tooth. At age sixteen, I joined my high school swim team as a sophomore and continued swim through high school career for about three months each year until I graduated. Upon graduation, I attended a division three college in northeast Ohio, where I competed as apart of their collegiate team for three years. Upon completing my junior year, I decided to “ Go Pro”, and have been training year round since 2017. My career to date is unlike most swimmers and quite spectacular considering what I’ve been able to accomplish with only three years of formal year-round training.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road here has been fraught with personal battles of shame and worthiness. Most people assume that disability is something that should be clearly visible and easily identified. As a para-athlete with less traditional characteristics of what most consider warrant inclusion into the disability spectrum, I take great pride in highlighting that not all disabilities fit a cookie-cutter model, but it hasn’t always been that way. For along time, I hid behind my seemingly “normal” appearance because not only did I not want to be different, I didn’t want to ever be someone who hid behind excuses that could limit my physical ability.

Human beings are complex, and now I try to offer opportunities to celebrate those complexities and acknowledge the differences that make us unique. As one of the older members of Team USA ParaSwimming, I encourage parents and athletes to participate as often as possible in sporting events and on teams that “fully able bodied” individuals participate in. The best thing we can do is empower our disabled community so that they dare to reach past the limits that society has attempted to place on them, and to effect a paradigm shift in the minds of our public resulting in a perspective likened to “whether some is missing a limb, sight, or nerve conductivity, they are not missing the ability to dream and accomplish their goals.. which is what makes us all human.”

Please tell us about Swim Up Hill.
At the beginning of my professional swimming career as apart of Team USA, I knew that I wanted my legacy to reach far beyond medals and awards. I wanted to use my growing platform to truly inspire and improve the quality of lives for others, namely the black community. This led me to establishing my business, Swim Up Hill.

In the United States, historical practices of systemic oppression prevented black families from gaining access to public pools, lakes, and beaches. Over the decades that racial exclusion developed into a frighteningly true stigma that “black people don’t swim.”This stigma has manifested itself in drowning rate data where black youth are three times as likely to be involved in accidental drownings.

Through the ease and speed of the Swim Up Hill Method, I aim to teach 1,000,000 people to swim, taking justice against senseless-accidental drownings with a revolutionary five hour curriculum that allows students as young as four and as old as eighty to progress from no swimming ability to a survival freestyle stroke of 10-15 yards.

The mission to teach 1,000,000 is a mantle that has been assumed by the Swim Up Hill Foundation and at this time, everyone has the opportunity to continue to invest in water competency for underserved communities by becoming a fiscal sponsor through our “ foundation “ page on the www.swimuphill.com website. We have recently partnered with Airbnb’s global platform to offer our services worldwide extending our service beyond physical borders through virtual instruction.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would spend more time in prayer and meditation working to hone in on my desires and a clear vision for the future self that I want to grow into. The good news is that this opportunity still exists abundance everyday!

Pricing:

• Private Coaching/ Interview/ Podcasts – $148.49/ half-hour
• Group Swim Lesson (entire 5-hour program) – $200.00/person
• Semi-Private/Private Swim Lesson (entire 5-hour program) – $450 – $650/ per person
• Online Air BnB Introductory Water Skills Class – $5-$15/ hour

Contact Info:

• Website: www.swimuphill.com
• Phone: 3103676401
• Email: bookings@swimuphill.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimuphill/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swimuphill/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/swimuphill?lang=en
• Other: www.airbnb.com/swimuphill

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