Competitive swimming is a sport full of juxtaposing ideologies and personal struggles with little camaraderie. Divergent sport is ever-evolving and pits lonely individuals against each other in a foreign environment. Likewise, corporate employees work themselves day in and day out building their nest egg until the day they succeed and emerge or retire. Competitive swimming symbolizes the struggle for many of America's ideologies within the framework of corporate America. Inequalities in the realm of competitive swimming mirror those of corporate America. Swimming as a vast amount of companies are dominated by rich white people. In 2006, the last year the NCAA released data, whites were nearly 70 times more likely to be on Division I swim teams than African Americans. Even worse, a recent study confirmed that “the rate of fatal, unintentional drowning among African Americans ages 5 to 14 was 3.2 times higher than that of whites.” The disparity in swimming is not just one of race but one of economic class as the percentage of blacks in the population is significantly lower than their overall percentage in the population. Swimming is much more expensive than basketball, football and athletics and so the facilities are often only available to the wealthy. Just as people are afraid of swimming, they are afraid of corporate America, assuming that they don't have enough education, that their family doesn't have money, and therefore they don't even try to succeed. Swimming, while it may seem relatively natural, requires a lot of training and resources to master these complicated movements. As the coach said, “there are no natural swimmers.” Parents often have their children train to become professional swimmers often... middle of paper... Wayne Humphrey, vice president of government relations for the Central Florida YMCA, said, "When you look in their eyes, you can see that they believe to have a future. Their aspirations and hope are rooted in their experience as swimmers, as people and as future leaders." Breaking barriers in swimming and incorporation evokes images of freedom and hope that Americans long for. Despite the reality hampered by unequal access and arbitrary rules, as long as Americans desire to succeed and value individuality, competitive swimming and businesses will continue to grow. =lapchick_richard&id=3417453, http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.answerbag.com%2Fq_view%2F34008%23ixzz182EDMI6i&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGR0A9-Oke0G2XfSA-83-_nwHDqeg, http https://www.answerbag.com/q_view/34008#ixzz182EDMI6i