Following the recent protests and unrest through the streets of major cities across the country, Lia Neal and Jacob Pebley knew they wanted to say and do something to help from the swimmer’s perspective.

The Olympic duo decided to create an online discussion platform called Swimmers for Change – with the intent of keeping its purpose ambiguous so that it can be used for varying matters when they arise. It’s also a way to raise money for different charities of all kinds.

“It can be swimming's ‘Justice League’ and called upon when important,” Pebley said. “Each episode is different. Twelve groups of 3 or 4. Different charities, different topics. It’s supposed to be a swimming-related topic unless the group feels comfortable enough to discuss key issues more deeply, like what Black Lives Matter stands for.”

For the past couple of weeks, swimmers of all backgrounds, past and present, have met online to discuss topics about race, competition, health, nutrition – you name it.

And the plan to is to continue using this format and opportunity to raise questions and share ideas as needed moving forward.

Here’s a short Q&A with the creators of Swimmers for Change about the state of the world and the need for conversation and the exchange of ideas.

Q: Was the creation of Swimmers for Change a joint venture between you two or did one of you have the initial idea and then flesh it out together? How did it originate/come together?

Lia: Jacob came to me with the idea of athletes volunteering to host webinars as a way of raising money to give back to charities after he expressed his disappointment in the lack of response from the swimming community in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement. I felt the same way and encouraged him, saying it was an amazing idea. It took off from there, and we spent the next week putting it all together before our first episode debuted a week and a half after our initial brainstorming conversation. I’m so grateful for Jacob to feel as galvanized as he did because yes, the black community has fallen victim to systemic racism but it also isn’t up to the black community alone to fight for change. I think that Jacob’s idea, in and of itself, is a testament to the kind of person he is – totally selfless and compassionate and genuinely wanting to make the world a better and more just place. 

Jacob: Swimmers for Change and what it is now is mostly Lia's vision. I came to Lia with wanting to support our Black community in some way, and I figured the best way for me to make the biggest impact was to use my skill set and my platform as a professional athlete. I think I pitched it to her as more of a one stream thing, but it kind of grew from there as we contemplated who else might want to help out. 

Q: Please tell me what you both envisioned when you created this venture? Very personal subject matter for both of you? 

Jacob: My initial vision for this was a one stream online "swim camp" without the swimming – give some advice on training, diet, recovery...just typical swim camp stuff without the swimming and that it would be free to come watch. Lia pointed out that Cejih (our agent) and Caroline (his assistant) had just finished up running a series of swimming-/health-related webinars on Crowdcast and that we could potentially use that platform since an audience had already been developed there for several months. I don't think either of us truly expected about 40 USA swimmers to want to help out, so it grew a lot once we started reaching out and these people had group ideas in mind immediately.

Lia: Prior to hearing from Jacob, I had been (and still am) working on a separate initiative to amplify specifically the Black athlete’s voice to really exhort change from the public. Jacob and I had both been thinking of ways to take tangible action, to have more impact so it’s cool that we got to work together on Swimmers for Change and have it grow into what it is today in just a matter of a couple weeks. We basically wanted to let people know that not every swimmer is sitting back and turning a blind eye to what’s going on, that there are a lot of us who are appalled by the injustices that have been going on in our country since its history and that we want to be able to leverage the platform that we’ve been given in order to contribute to making change. It was really special to hear from a lot of the swimmers that I reached out to that they were grateful for this opportunity because they, too, wanted to help the movement but didn’t necessarily know how. 

Q: Discussing race can be a very personal and often uncomfortable topic for people of different races. Is that the idea – to create change by talking about a topic that needs to be discussed regardless of comfort level? 

Jacob: The discomfort in discussing race is absolutely an important component to these webinars. Seeing many different athletes we look up to grapple with these topics of race is so important for younger athletes and the swimming community as a whole because we are so focused on performances in our sport, we rarely ever discuss anything else. The main point of the webinars was to raise money for charities each group of athletes cared about. By doing so, it allows them to discuss that charity and its importance. It opens a dialogue for viewers to go check out the charity and learn about it, hopefully even donate to it. 

Lia: If it’s uncomfortable to have that conversation, then it must mean that something’s not right. Not addressing it doesn’t make it go away. Some choose to live blissfully in ignorance though because it’s the easier option; but nothing good ever came easy. To be honest, quite a few of our athlete volunteers had expressed some wariness with possibly saying the wrong thing – but I just reassured them that their heart is in the right place and that’s all they need. The only way to say the wrong thing is to not say anything at all.

Q: Please tell me from each of your perspectives what this means to you to create this platform for discussion, expression and change? 

Lia: Just seeing this coalition of over 40 U.S. Olympians, Paralympians and National Teamers come together in support of this movement speaks for itself. Swimmers for Change wouldn’t be a thing if it weren’t for the people behind it supporting it, so that’s just been really special to experience and see unfold with every episode and hearing every voice. 

Jacob: It has meant a lot to me to be a part of something like this. I've never really had time to invest heavily into something other than myself or my family. And to do it for a community of people who have been limited and brutalized for so long in our society makes it that much more meaningful. A lot of athletes that are far more well-known than myself are often told to stay quiet and stick to sports. This type of rhetoric makes athletes feel scared to step up and speak for things they care about. Most of our top swimmers post about swimming, family, pets and side hobbies. Nothing else. I have largely been the same way. But when you hurt bad enough for someone or something, that fear of speaking up is swept by the fear of not speaking up – the internal dialogue of "what if this gets worse and all I did was post photos of myself swimming while people are dying?” 

Lia -- have you experienced forms/levels of racism in the sport? Overt as well as camouflaged?

Lia: Luckily, I haven’t – not to my knowledge at least. I was born and raised in New York City, the melting pot of the world, surrounded by all cultures and open-minded people so I never really saw the significance of being a Black swimmer until I started increasingly being asked that question in and following 2012 after making my first Olympic team. The only thing is that swimming still has a way to go with increasing its diversity, and it’s obvious every time someone mistakes me for another black swimmer. I’ve heard from the other 3 that they constantly get the same thing. 

Jacob -- have you witnessed racism in the sport against fellow swimmers?

Jacob: I don't think I personally have seen any racism in the sport of swimming. As a white male who grew up in a predominantly white town, I didn't see many Black swimmers. To me, that is the problem. Tony [Ervin] [IM1] discussed this in the first webinar, but there is such a terrible history of pools not allowing Black people to swim in them and the stat that if your parents don't know how to swim that there is an extreme unlikelihood that you will learn to swim. Our sport is very much White. The fact that we are getting "first time" occurrences from Cullen, Lia and Simone in the Olympics between '08 and '16 just shows that something is wrong and needs to be corrected. Those three athletes are phenomenal. Why can't there be more? It's because the number of Black swimmers that even have that Olympic swimming dream is too few.

Q: I know this is still a new venture, but what have you taken/learned from the discussions so far? Any surprises? Will you only have swimmers on or do you envision asking coaches, administrators (college or NGB), officials, etc. on as well? 

Jacob: I think I have learned the most from just seeing my peers get emotional about this. Watching Cullen (Jones), Lia and Tony (Ervin) get choked up about this broke me down. I have only ever seen these people stoked on swimming. It's really impactful to see them engaging with issues like this and doing it so well. We thought about asking some coaches and officials, but thought it would be a lot more special if the athletes did this first push together.

Lia: A lot of the swimmers are close friends of mine whom I’ve gotten to know over the past 11 years on Junior, National and Olympic teams. So, I know, personally, how cool these people are and how much more depth there is to each of them beyond being the best swimmers in the world. This is just a platform that Jacob and I have provided for them so that the rest of the world can know how cool they are by listening to them speak candidly, honestly, vulnerably for the first time. It would be amazing to have other coaches involved, too. Swimmers are the face of swimming obviously, but there are so many other key players to it as well so it would be a great help and great for the cause if we had coaches, administrators, officials, etc. take part as well. Our coach, David Marsh, was totally in support and offered to do an episode, say with other coaches if we were to add more so that was really cool of him.

To learn more about Swimmers for Change and/or view its regular online discussions, as well as learn about opportunities to donate to a variety of different causes, please visit www.cgsportsmanagement.com/swimmers-for-change.