The culture here in L.A. is that kids who wear "Speedos" or jammers to the pool are considered privileged because that they know how to swim well. They are not bullied and they are more often than not befriended.At the Van Nuys Sherman Oaks pool, Hispanic parents during the summer set up "camp" for the day so their kids can play in the pool from morning till night and learn how how to swim. Those that can't even afford goggles are given them for free by the lifeguards. Some are let on the team for free if they get good grades and can't afford the the $25. If their school work slips, they spend their workout time doing homework.
I bet British diver, Tom Daley, wished lived in L.A.. He would have a lot kids watching his back, and you don't want to mess with these kids. I should post photos some day.
From the Brisbane Times:
"I'd always ignored the 'diver boy' or 'Speedo boy' comments when I came back from Beijing last year, hoping they'd get fed up and stop," he said.
"The trouble is they haven't, and it's even the younger kids who are joining in.
"It's getting to the stage now where I think 'Oh, to hell with it. I don't want to go back to school'.
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20 comments:
You can't imagine my shock when I saw Tom Daley's photo pop up on your blog! Yay divers!!
Two things: first of all, Tom is now 15 because his birthday was in May.
Second: I've heard about a lot of bullying, especially involving the Speedo logo or brand. It's synonymous with tiny swimsuits which - to middle school boys - is synonymous with homosexuals.
We've had very little success marketing Speedo backpacks with 'back to school' specials because kids just won't take them to school! I heard a story about a young boy with a Speedo sweatshirt who got teased into taking it off, hiding it, and never wearing it again.
Oh, he also won 10m platform in the 2009 FINA World Championships and is sort of a British teen pop star now - so I haven't heard whether or not he is still being teased. My guess would be: yes.
I am deeply ashamed of my fellow countrymen.
That is so terrible. Speedo should start a subsidiary brand for boys, that's what I would recommend.
he has now change school , a private school offered him a scholarship : his new school are more used to athletes.
link to the article : http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jun/02/tom-daley-school-bullying-diving
This story's 6 or 7 months old now, and Tom's come out of the whole affair rather well - he transferred to a different (fee-paying) school after Easter, which is much more attuned to having sporting star students (they had people representing Kenya and Trinidad at the FINA World Championships, as well as Tom). When this story first appeared several schools competed to get Tom to go to them, so I suppose the scholarship the school awarded pays for his fees.
Tom's age group would normally be doing their GCSEs (public exams) next summer, but because of his competitive schedule he's doing some of them early - he did the 2-year syllabus for combined science in 10 days, and got an A* grade (top marks) (http://tinyurl.com/ykjpmkh ) a year early; he's done some other exams recently, and he'll take others when he's out in China next year. Obviously he's not just a great diver!
In other news, Tom is in the final three shortlist for the BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year for the third consecutive year (he won the award in 2007, and I rather fancy his chances this year), and after his world championship I wouldn't be in the least surprised if he was awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Years Honours list.
I am very impressed... WOW! It is also refreshing to hearthat he is in an environment that is less restrictive and he is able to realize his full potential. AWESOME, and so great to hear!
thank you
It is sad about the previous bullying he endured. Though, I suspect, expected considering when you do a Google or Yahoo search for Tom Daley, the assitant not only brings up "Tom Daley speedo" but "Tom Daley bulge" in the midst of "Tom Daley Diver". Plus, you have the UK Comedian Frankie Boyle making gags about what Tom has down his trunks. It really is sad and hopefully does not/will not distract the young athlete from his quest.
In America, jokes regarding a 14-year-boy and a bulge down his Speedo would destroy a comedian's career here and he would be labeled a pedophile for the rest of his life.
This country is very touchy about "buldge jokes" regarding minors
I'm surprised you say it's the opposite in the US because the coaches and people over on the US swimming forums talk a lot about how jammers are NECESSARY because boys will have problems wearing Speedos. For similar reasons - the homosexual connotations, bullying.
Van Nuys is a mostly poor community situated next to a very affluent Sherman Oaks.
There is a pool that straddles the border and the two cultures mix. VNSO or Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks.
Kids there wear 50/50 briefs jammers.
Likewise in the UK there are tons of pools where boys wear Speedos without consequence.
I think it's mostly jealousy with Daley or a culture at that school which can unfortunately come from just one or two people, with the rest following like sheep. Daley comes across as metrosexual, is successful, intelligent.
I don't see this as uniquely an UK problem because I live there and this is the first time I've heard of this happening - and I bet it's happened in LA at some point with someone.
Just to update an old thread, and let you know - Tom won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award tonight, the first person ever to win this award twice (and he came second in it last year).
Unfortunately he wasn't in the top 3 for the main Sports Personality of the Year award (obviously all the Manchester United fans voted Ryan Giggs for that, despite him not doing much this year, except play for the same team for 20 years...).
Tom was pretty assured on stage, in front of 11,000 people including practically everyone who is anyone in British sport, and a national tv audience.
Because of this incident, I am going to include more diving images and stories to this blog. Can you recommend some sites for me to look it?
Hmm, well there's FINA's site at http://www.fina.org/ , for European news there's LEN's at http://www.len.eu/
British Swimming's diving page is at http://www.britishswimming.co.uk/vsite/vnavsite/page/directory/0,10853,5157-180201-197419-nav-list,00.html
If you're following Tom, I've got an alert set up on "Tom Daley" on Google News - there are a few other people with the same name, but most references are to our Tom; most of the British national papers have stories about him on their sites, most commonly the Daily Telegraph at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/, the Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/, the Independent at http://www.independent.co.uk/, Tom's local paper The Plymouth Herald at http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/, and of course the BBC diving page at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/diving/default.stm which is nearly all about Tom!
You might also want to follow Tom's Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/TomDaley1994
Oh yes, forgot to say - for pictures try Google Images, they've got more pictures of Tom than you can shake a stick at!
Well, it's definitely not an issue unique to the UK. I endured plenty of teasing and pranks as a teenage swimmer, not just for my swimsuit but also my shaved legs before meets. My girlfriend, who was also on the swim team, was one of my few defenders. It got under my skin and I might have therefore made for an easier target, but in the end I concluded it goes with the territory.
I think that its terrible people make fun of you so if u ever get made fun of just think im not going to argue im just as good as you.
I agree. :-)
When kids tease others about wearing speedos especially when they use the term "gay" there is something more going on. Wearing clothes docent make you gay, it sounds absurd to say that. I think it is due to sexual repression of males in the states and UK. It is natural to be a bit curious as a boy or even a girl about such feelings. What I am saying is the boys that tease other boys see the confidence it takes to show that much of your body, and are also slightly attracted to the person wearing such a garment, not nessasarily in a sexual way although this may be the case, but also they admire the confidence. And to an adolescent boy these feelings may not be distinguishable, they fear they may be gay, eventhough the attraction may be purely platonic.
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