American Paralympic swimmer Jamal Hill chatted about his latest endeavors, which include Swim Up Hill, where his goal is to teach millions of people how to swim, in an effort to prevent drowning.
He won the bronze medal at the 2022 Paralympic Games in Tokyo last summer. “Winning the bronze medal in Tokyo was really just the realization of a dream,” he admitted. “We had put in about five years of work. I dropped out of college in order to pursue this dream this vision of what I thought that I could be. I thought that I could bring inspiration to other people and ultimately be on the podium,” he said.
“Tokyo was huge validation of all the work and time and energy. I’ll be representing a lot more than swimming fast and I think that is that where the true gold and that’s where the true wins are,” he added.
Swim Up Hill
He opened up about his nonprofit organization, Swim Up Hill. “Our mission is to teach one million people a year how to swim by the 2028 Olympics and Paralympic games,” he said.
“Originally that mission was only one million people but it already being 2022 and we’ve already had so much progress in fact this year we ran our first international program in Columbia,” he explained.
“Knowing how much progress we’ve had and how much of an endemic drowning is around the world – over one million people drown around the world every year and they’re mostly from low to middle-income countries and communities with people of color that pretty much make up those communities,” he said.
“So for those reasons we expanded the mission to what we know we can accomplish which is by 2028 we will be teaching one million people every single year how to swim all over the world,” he added.
Motivations
On his daily motivations, Hill said, “What motivates me every day is knowing that I have got some huge dreams and a really really big vision for where this world can be as a whole and how I can contribute to it. The goal for my career, for my swimming everything that I’m doing on an international platform through the Paralympic movement through Swim Up Hill and in the community is all working towards a Nobel Peace Prize for ending drowning.”
The digital age
On being a swimmer in the digital age, he said, “I think being a swimmer in the digital age is a great advantage. We have more technology and more opportunities than we’ve ever had to ultimately create that brand, and create awareness, and really just raise engagement around initiatives and the causes that we care about.”
“We no longer need someone else’s permission or someone else’s power to make what’s important to us known, now that I have the freedom and the tools to go ahead and create pretty much whatever we want to create in and outside of the pool. It’s wild because now the whole world can swim with us at all times whereas before it was a pretty lonely sport,” he acknowledged.
Future plans
On his future plans, he said, “My plans for the future are to see this foundation Swim Up Hill expand to a point, it’s already so much bigger than me, but to see it to where we have activations on six of the seven major continents and witness people all over the world that are benefiting from the value that our SUH community is bringing to the world saving lives.”
“I’d like to compete in 2024 and make the podium and potentially win gold as well as represent my family at home in Los Angeles at the 2028 Games. After that, I’m not entirely sure. If I still have this swimming bug and my athletic prowess then I’ll continue on in the pool,” he said.
“Outside of that I really just want to create opportunities for other athletes, creating opportunities for the youth that’s everything. Building my own arena means I get to make the rules me and I get to ultimately lead and guide those who I think are in the right place or who I think I have what it takes to really make a positive change not only for themselves but for others too,” he elaborated.
For young and siring swimmers, he said, “My advice for young and aspiring swimmers is to enjoy the process. If you wanna become a pro swimmer the most important ingredient you’re gonna need is a love for the sport you’re gonna have to love the process and enjo ity. Learn to not have an expectation about it, you want to set your goals and always be looking to become more, to learn more, to do more, but to never fall into the trap of defining yourself by how many medals you win or how fast you are. You’re more than a swimmer now. You’ll always be more than a swimmer.”
“So the sooner that young athletes can embrace the fact that they are this combination of mind, heart, spirit, and it’s all working in this awareness for the human experience I think ultimately they’ll have a great life,” he added.
Success
On his definition of success, he said, “Success to me means that you get to do what you love and you get to do what you wanna do. I think there are levels to success but what’s crazy is that as soon as I dropped out of college I felt successful when I went to college I felt successful because I did things that I wanted to do and I grew.”
“Early on in my career, before I went to the Paralympics, I went to my first international competition I was already experiencing success because I was living my dream, and even now as I continue to live my dream and I know that there’s so much more I’m just at this other level so pretty much only thing you need to do to become successful is know what you want and start doing it right now after you do that then you’re on the right path then you get to start climbing that ladder to higher levels that honestly only you can see and only you can reach,” he elaborated.
To learn more about Paralympian Jamal Hill, follow him on Instagram.
