While Jamal Hill Continues To Help Kids Learn To Swim, He’s Determined To Be The Best Swimmer In The World By LA28

Paralympian Jamal Hill does not think small.

Not when it comes to his swimming career; not when it comes to the Paralympics coming to his hometown of Los Angeles in two years; and not when it comes to his foundation, Swim Up Hill.

The two-time Paralympian officially founded Swim Up Hill in 2020 to bring life-saving swimming education and instruction to low- to middle-income people of color in communities across the world who are at risk of drowning. From the very start, his goal has been to teach not 100, not 1,000, but one million people to swim every year.

“From a marketing standpoint (one million is) a good number, it sounds good, but we want to have a real impact,” said Hill, 31. “There are hundreds of thousands of youth drowning around the world every year, pretty much all in low-income countries and communities, so we need to supersede that number. There are a lot of world problems, and I don’t have a cure for world hunger, or homelessness, but I do think what we’re doing, and with the right partners, we will bring about a cure for drowning.”

Swim Up Hill recently announced an expansion into Africa. They’ve done programs in both Colombia as well as the Maharashtra state of India, and this new partnership with the Soweto Swim School will bring their technology and methodology to townships across Johannesburg in South Africa. Their goal is to reach 10,000 new swimmers by 2027 and help launch two new swim facilities. 

“Now we’re making it a reality and fundraising to bring more swimming education into Soweto,” he said. 

The Swim Up Hill method includes exercises students can practice at home to begin learning how to swim without ever getting wet. Their Swim Suite technology platform includes an immersive experience where students can upload a photo and their name to become part of a story and go on swimming adventures.

Another “edutainment” game allows the user to “swim” through Olympic and Paralympic host cities, learning swimming facts and collecting coins along the way. The technology can be customized to be culturally and geographically relevant — for instance, an area that’s landlocked but has rivers, lakes or canals can focus on the waterways that students are most likely to encounter — and can easily integrate with school systems.

This past spring, Swim Up Hill had its largest direct-impact program to date partnering with the National City School District and the City of San Diego. Over 11 weeks, 475 students across 10 elementary schools, including several with severe disabilities, participated in swim lessons and water-safety instruction, and 90 percent advanced to independent swimming competency by the end.

“They moved from a color-coded system of red or orange, which was indicative of little skills or they were fearful of water, to moving into green and blue zones meaning they can float independently, make forward progress, and ultimately they were no longer a hazard to themselves or others in a pool environment,” Hill said. 

Swim Up Hill plans to run the program with the school district again this fall.

Of course, while Hill is putting his life-saving educational programming to work across the world, he’s still training for the Paralympics in 2028. Some things he’s doing to prepare for his third trip to the Games are “top secret,” but he’s excited to share some of his strategies. One is enlisting Cameron McEvoy — four-time Australian Olympian and reigning gold medalist and world record holder in the 50-meter freestyle — as a coach. 

“A lot of my perspectives on timelines and success come from being around people that do really amazing, impressive things that are rare,” said Hill, whose signature event is also the 50-meter freestyle. “And Cameron is the fastest in the world. He breaks world records. He’s a bit of a maverick in terms of his training styles, and I just wanted to be with the best.”

Hill won bronze in the 50-meter freestyle S9 at the 2020 Paralympics and silver at the 2022 world championships. But he struggled with motivation leading up to the 2024 Paralympics in Paris and earned a fifth-place finish. Although it was his best in that moment, he said, he has since been focused on becoming the best in the world in his event leading up to Los Angeles in 2028.

“I need everyone, everyone, to understand that gold is staying in Los Angeles with Jamal,” he said. “That’s it. And to have no doubt about that and accept that.”

With the Games on his home turf, Hill wants to pack the arena. He doesn’t care if it’s someone his mom met at the grocery store or someone from his family. Hill wants to fill the place. He’s also hoping that the lasting legacy of the Games will be intertwined with the legacy of his aquatics programming through Swim Up Hill.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said. “For most athletes it never happens. Not in any lifetime do you make the team and it’s a home Games and it’s in your city. This is an opportunity to bring notoriety and awareness to what my mission in aquatics has been, which is saving lives and ultimately helping people to believe that yes, they can. Regardless of how much you have or what color you are, not only is swimming for you, but anything that you decide is for you, is for you.”

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.