{"id":1297,"date":"2018-11-21T18:51:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T18:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/news\/sports\/swimming-up-hill\/"},"modified":"2018-11-21T18:51:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T18:51:36","slug":"swimming-up-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/news\/sports\/swimming-up-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming Up Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Inglewood native Jamal Hill, who suffers from a muscle disorder, is motivating others to be their best while he trains for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Games.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-blackowned-los-angeles-standard-newspaper\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Support_Standard_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"296\" \/><\/a><figcaption>The L.A. Standard Newspaper needs your support so that we can continue to create positive stories about Black communities. $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000. Any amount would be greatly appreciated. -Jason Douglas Lewis, Owner\/Publisher. Donations can be made through Cash App <a href=\"https:\/\/cash.app\/$LAStandard\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/cash.app\/$LAStandard<\/a>, Venmo https:\/\/venmo.com @LA-Standard-Newspaper, PayPal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/paypalme\/lastandardnewspaper\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/paypalme\/lastandardnewspaper<\/a>, and GoFundMe <a>https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-blackowned-los-angeles-standard-newspaper<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure>&nbsp;<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-1295\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/6S8R8299-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/6S8R8299-web.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/6S8R8299-web-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption><em><strong>Jamal Hill has been swimming since he was a young child, and he frequently swam at the Westchester YMCA and the Lou Dantzler Boys and Girls Club in South Los Angeles. Photos by Jason Lewis<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/345120773?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Swim Up Hill &#8211; A short doc on US Paralympic Swimmer, Jamal Hill from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/iamjohnduarte\" target=\"_blank\">John Duarte<\/a> on Vimeo.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">By Jason Lewis<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Swimmer Jamal Hill has big dreams, and that is going to lead him to Tokyo to compete on the world stage in the 2020 Paralympic Games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On first sight, Hill appears to be a very well-built elite athlete.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s just as muscular and sleek as any other swimmer.&nbsp; But he suffers from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which is an inherited disorder that causes nerve damage, mostly in the arms and legs.&nbsp; This results in smaller, weaker muscles; loss of sensation and muscle contractions, and difficulty walking. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;It runs in my family,&rdquo; Hill said.&nbsp; &ldquo;It affects my mom a little bit.&nbsp; It affects my uncles pretty heavily.&nbsp; Essentially my motor neurons in my outer extremities, from my elbow to my fingertips and from my kneecaps all the way to my toes gives me a lot of problems.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This disorder used to mentally and emotionally bother Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;People see me and they&#8217;re like, &lsquo;wow you look so strong, I can&#8217;t even imagine that there&#8217;s something wrong with you,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &nbsp;&ldquo;For a long time it was a point of shame for me.&nbsp; I never talked about it.&nbsp; I knew that I didn&#8217;t want to be handicapped by it, but I also did a lot of emotional and mental handicapping on myself.&nbsp; I felt cursed.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Earlier this year, Hill decided to start talking about it with other people who are affected by the disorder, and it has greatly encouraged him to stay positive.&nbsp; And in turn, he has also helped others who have the disorder to follow their dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;One in 2,000 people have Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease,&rdquo; he said. &nbsp;&ldquo;There&#8217;s tons of people around the world&nbsp; that I&#8217;ve been able to converse with, that I&#8217;ve been able to relate with, and that I&#8217;ve been able to give hope to.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve been able to tell people that I know that this is how it is and we all wish that we could change it but it doesn&#8217;t have to stop us.&nbsp; We have to change here and we have to adapt there, but you&rsquo;re no less human, you&rsquo;re no less of a person, you&rsquo;re no less deserving, and you&rsquo;re definitely no less capable.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-1296\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/6S8R8439-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" class=\"pull-right\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/6S8R8439-web.jpg 400w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/6S8R8439-web-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Hill has adapted to the disorder by learning to recruit other muscles to propel himself through the water at a high rate of speed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;I don&#8217;t like to call it a handicap,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I call it concentrated energy.&nbsp; Like a superhero, like Daredevil.&nbsp; He lost his eyesight but then he had super senses.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hill has grown up in the swimming pool.&nbsp; His mother did not learn how to swim as a child, so when he was young, she signed them up for mommy and me swimming classes.&nbsp; He grew up near Crenshaw Boulevard and Imperial Highway in Inglewood, and he frequently swam at the Westchester YMCA and the Lou Dantzler Boys and Girls Club in South Los Angeles.&nbsp; He competed on the swim team at Serra High School in Gardena, which earned him a scholarship to Hiram College in Ohio. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">While in Ohio, Hill studied physics, in which several of his family members work.&nbsp; He has uncles who are members of the Los Angeles Council of Black Professional Engineers, and he attended their Excell program at Cal State Dominguez Hills. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">After competing in college for two years, Hill decided that he wanted to be trained by the best swim coaches in the nation.&nbsp; He landed on USC&rsquo;s Trojan Elite team, which is a post-graduate, professional swim team. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;I&#8217;m swimming with Olympians, former Olympians, some of the fastest swimmers in the world,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m picking up lots of knowledge and I&#8217;m learning.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Currently Hill is being trained by Wilma Wong, who coaches nationally ranked swimmers at the Boys &amp; Girls club in Pasadena.&nbsp; Under Wong&rsquo;s guidance, Hill is the top ranked Paralympian in the nation in the 50-meter freestyle and No. 13 in the world. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Besides the goal of competing in the Paralympics, Hill is also an inspirational speaker and he has the goal of teaching one million people how to swim.&nbsp; He plans to personally teach as many people as possible, and also influences the masses to take swimming lessons.&nbsp; He started a marketing company called Swim Up Hill to help people find classes, and help swimming programs promote their lessons to the public. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hill has turned his disorder from a negative into a positive to help people with their own issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;The things that we think are holding us back, that are these curses on us, that we just wish weren&#8217;t there.&nbsp; The things that we wish we could wish away are there for a reason,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;We need to wish that we knew how to use them.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For more information on Hill, visit his website at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swimuphill.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.swimuphill.com<\/a>, and follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/swimuphill\/\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/swimuphill\/\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Support local, Black-owned businesses! <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Compubase Printing is located at 3847 Crenshaw Blvd.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.obituariestomorrow.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Newspaper-Ad-CROP-MARKS-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"501\" height=\"823\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.compubaseprints.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Newspaper-Ad-CUB-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"760\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sammicheshoppe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Sammiche-Shoppe-Flyer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"646\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hotandcoolcafe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Hot-and-Cool-ad.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-807\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/photo-ad-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/photo-ad-web.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/photo-ad-web-300x149.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-808\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/LAPD-LA-Standard_Dec-8_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"558\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/LAPD-LA-Standard_Dec-8_web.jpg 558w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/LAPD-LA-Standard_Dec-8_web-233x300.jpg 233w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 558px) 100vw, 558px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.joinlapd.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.joinlapd.com<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joinlafd.org\" target=\"_blank\">www.joinlafd.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Inglewood native Jamal Hill, who suffers from a muscle disorder, is motivating others to be their best while he trains for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Games.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[169,170,93,168,1132,167,161,218,1130,134,133,156,157,75,163,1131,166,1128,162,165,102,1133,613,1129,171,1134,158,160,159,164],"class_list":["post-1297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-african-american","tag-african-american-newspaper","tag-baldwin-hills","tag-black-newspaper","tag-charcot-marie-tooth-disease","tag-community-newspaper","tag-crenshaw","tag-inglewood","tag-jamal-hill","tag-jason-douglas-lewis","tag-jason-lewis","tag-ladera-heights","tag-leimert-park","tag-los-angeles","tag-mid-city","tag-muscle-disorder","tag-newspaper","tag-paralympics","tag-park-mesa-heights","tag-photographer","tag-south-los-angeles","tag-swimmer","tag-swimming","tag-tokyo-2020-paralympics-games","tag-usc","tag-usc-trojan-elite-team","tag-view-park","tag-west-adams","tag-windsor-hills","tag-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}