If I had a dollar for every pool in Detroit, I would not have very many dollars.
The Motor City is in fact an aquatic desert. 
But it’s not just Detroit; pool accessibility is an issue plaguing most urban centers across the United States and world. Many will argue that the sport of swimming does not warrant the financial resources necessary to keep these facilities open or create new ones. As a former collegiate swimmer, avid swim nerd, and passionate coach, it is only fair to foster a conversation spotlighting aquatics in Detroit.
Michigan has more fresh water shoreline than any other state in the country. As a region, we are home to some of the most competitive swim programs and Universities in the world. Then how can the regions epicenter lack aquatic prowess?
It’s not just about developing healthy lifestyles and encouraging life-long experiences. It’s about safety:
- Drowning ranks second – behind car crashes – as the leading cause of accidental death for children 14 and younger.
- Only 13% of children who come from a non-swimming household learn to swim.
- Children from non-swimming households are eight times more likely to be at risk for drowning.
The crime in all of this is that drowning is preventable. I am fortuned to have grown up in a community where swimming lessons were the norm growing up. I started swimming on a team at age 8, and began coaching at 17. This scenario was common in my neighborhood, but difficult to see in Detroit.
Swimming journalist Mike Gustafson documented his aquatic experiences when he lived in New York. “Show me a neighborhood with 200,000 people and only one public swimming pool” referring to his borough in Brooklyn. Detroit is not far off this startling example, with a population of over 700,000 people; there are only a handful of pools to come by.
I recently joined the Boll Family YMCA
downtown. They offer members a 4-lane 25-yard pool. It’s not a 50m pool, and in fact there is not a single indoor Olympic sized pool in the City of Detroit. I live downtown and am lucky enough to be able to walk to this facility; however, a majority of Detroiters are not in a similar circumstance with access to a safe public swimming pool.
It’s hard to describe the sensations and freedom the body experiences when one goes for a swim. It’s a fantastic feeling that I hope more people can experience. This can only happen if we put our thinking 
caps on and take a hard look at the realities, infrastructure, and perceptions facing our sport. By developing a framework for this dialog, we can combine the potential of the regions leaders with the influence of our sports frontrunners. Together we can get the conversation moving!
Just keep swimming…
#SwimDetroit
Contributed by: Fares Ksebati (@FaresKsebati).