Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson – The First Black Woman To Win Swimming World Title

This past weekend, Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson became the first black woman to win a world swimming title when she totally crushed the 100m breast stroke at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Atkinson completed the short course race in 1 minute and 2.36 seconds, tying the world record, which according to FINA standards counts as its own record.

Atkinson was completely unaware of what she had done, staring up at the scoreboard with an air of resignation before it gradually dawned. “Me?,” she mouthed, pointing at herself before the enormity of her achievement was absorbed and so started the celebrations.

She told reporters: “I could not believe it! It came down to the same thing as the 50 and on the 50 I got out-touched so in my mind I went straight back to that.

“I just thought ‘oh okay’ and looked up at the board and it didn’t really click yet and then it really started to click. It took a while!”

Atkinson’s role at the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Florida is to encourage greater involvement of different communities in swimming and to promote water safety.

“Hopefully my face will come out, there will be more popularity especially in Jamaica and the Caribbean and we’ll see more of a rise and hopefully in the future we will see a push,” Atkinson mused.

Source: AFP