EMORY, Va. - Emory & Henry College freshman swimmer Noah Wilson wants to make the sport of swimming a more welcoming place for current and future swimmers.
Wilson (Frederick, Md.) got his start in swimming on the Frederick County YMCA's club team Tidal Force. He recently was chosen as a representative for Maryland Swimming - which represents most of the state's swimming community.
Recently Wilson became involved with Maryland Swiming's Inclusion & Diversity program and applied for and was elected to a position on USA Swimming's National Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
On September 10-15, Wilson attended the USA Swimming National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference has multiple areas of focus including safe sport, diversity & inclusion, administration for the local chairs of the swim committees, and other smaller categories such as coaches 101 and alternative medicine for swimmers.
"By being involved in Diversity and Inclusion for USA Swimming, I am trying to help other kids of color, LGBTQ kids, whatever the case may be, to feel accepted in the swimming community," said Wilson. "Being biracial, it was interesting when I was younger, not seeing a lot of people that kind of look like me."
Wilson became interested in swimming after watching the 2012 Olympics and seeing Michael Phelps swim in London. In 2013 he joined his club team at the YMCA, after trying out three times.
"The first two times went awful. They told me I would need to take lessons and try again later. I was so determined."
Wilson also swam on his high school team for four years at Walkersville High School and was the team captain his senior year.
Wilson hopes to continue his work with diversity & inclusion in swimming at Emory & Henry.
"The College actually has way more diversity than I thought it would have. I can see Emory & Henry is heading in the right direction, and though there is still a ways to go in drawing and recruiting more diverse students, it's at a better standing than I thought it was going to be before I came here."
Wilson is planning to major in exercise science.
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- Cara Brooks '20 contributed to this feature.