Olympians Simone Manuel, Nathan Adrian, Missy Franklin, Cullen Jones and Rowdy Gaines appeared on NBC’s Today Show on Wednesday in New York City for the USA Swimming Foundation to talk about water safety this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. They are in New York for USA Swimming’s National Day of Giving to spread the message about the importance of teaching kids to swim.
The representatives from the Foundation were also scheduled to throw out the first pitch at a New York Mets game this week and travelled to the Empire State Building.
As with previous tour stops, the USA Swimming Foundation hopes its high-profile events around New York will raise awareness about water safety and help parents understand their children are less at risk of drowning if they know how to swim.
The Make a Splash Tour was started in 2009 with the goal of teaching children to swim and drawing attention to the risks they could face around water, especially if they’ve never taken swimming lessons.
Drowning is the number 1 cause of injury-related deaths among children ages 1-4 years old, with three kids dying every day in the United States from it. It’s the second-leading cause of death for children under the age of 14.
The Make a Splash Tour has traveled around the country over the past decade, bringing highly decorated American swimmers to different cities every summer to help spread awareness about the problem. New York is the first of four cities the tour will host events in this summer. The other stops are at Memphis on May 29, San Diego on June 3 and Corpus Christi, Texas, on June 5.
An excerpt of the show can be viewed below. You can donate to the USA Swimming Foundation here.