Persuasive Speech

Why 12 Year-olds should Swim 1500

In the Bahamas, the 1500m freestyle is not an optional event until a swimmer is in the 13-14 or 15-17 age group. The reason behind this is most likely because in international meets, the 1500 is not swum in the 11-12 age group. However, I think that we should be allowed to swim it so we can have practice in swimming the event. The other countries in the Caribbean do not have this issue. In the other countries with swim teams that perform well, the mile is quite a good event, this is because the distance swimmers have experience in the event, and this brings in more points for the country.  In the Bahamas, a distance swimmer may not be as successful until they are old enough. The Bahamas swim team, in the most recent Carifta, had only one swimmer in the 1500, and he was a 17 year old. By not letting them swim the event, it is discouraging to the swimmers, and it causes the Bahamas’ problem of lacking in distance events. After Carifta 2013, the head of the Bahamas Swimming Federation himself, said that we need to improve our performance in the distance events, so why would he not make it an option? Knowing that the distance events are less popular, it would encourage a young person to try, because they may do well. Making the event optional will encourage the swimmers and coaches to train for and try to do it, this would make the event more popular, making it a fast and competitive event, and overall improving the performance of the Bahamas’ swim teams.