{"id":24370,"date":"2012-07-16T14:47:35","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T14:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=24370"},"modified":"2014-10-22T19:25:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T19:25:48","slug":"olympic-swimmer-neal-built-her-dream-in-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=24370","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Swimmer Neal Built Her Dream in Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic Swimmer Neal Built Her Dream in Brooklyn<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2012-07-15<\/p>\n

William C. Rhoden<\/a><\/strong>, Sports Columnist<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lia Neal (Al Bello\/Getty Images)<\/small><\/td>\nRome and Siu Neal with their grandson Rome Jin, their son Rome Kyn and his wife Ziggy (Victor J. Blue for The New York Times<\/em>)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Rome Neal walked up to the microphone last week at the Paris Blues in Harlem and was just about to sing \u201cI Worry About You\u201d when he decided to share some great news with his audience. In his 12 years of performing a one-man show about Thelonious Monk<\/a>, Neal had come to appreciate the importance of exquisite timing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter\u2019s name is Lia Neal<\/a> and she just made it to become an Olympic swimmer, and she\u2019ll be swimming in the Olympics in 2012 in London, England, the 4×100 relay,\u201d Neal said.<\/p>\n

The audience applauded and cheered enthusiastically. \u201cLia is 17 years old,\u201d he said, \u201cthe second African-American female swimmer to make it to the Olympics.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

More applause, and for a story Rome Neal could finally tell.<\/p>\n

Lia Neal qualified for the Olympics earlier this month by finishing fourth in the 100-meter freestyle, putting her on the relay team. In the weeks and months leading to the Olympic swimming trials, her mother, Siu Neal, had admonished her husband of 38 years not to put the cart before the horse, to rein in his flair for the dramatic and generally be cool.<\/p>\n

Now Rome was free to spread the word and the joy: his baby girl was an Olympian…<\/p>\n

…But the commitment is not just by the athlete.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny parent would do what I do,\u201d Siu Neal said. \u201cThey all spend lots of time with their kids, take them to swimming practice, bringing them to competitions and meets. I don\u2019t consider it giving up anything. I enjoy watching her swim; I even loved to watch her practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siu and Rome Neal are each 59, and their relationship reflects a deep-seated belief in possibility. They were brought together by poignant variations of the American dream. Their journeys to New York \u2014 and each other \u2014 underline the complexities and contradictions of a nation conceived in liberty. Their daughter symbolizes the powerful, positive force of that union.<\/p>\n

When he was a year old, in 1953, Rome (his given name, Jerome, was shortened by his mother) moved to New York City from Sumter, S.C., as his family sought relief from the suffocating racial oppression in the South.<\/p>\n

Siu and her family immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong when she was 18 to join her grandfather. \u201cWe were looking for a better life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rome\u2019s family settled in Harlem before moving to Brooklyn. Siu\u2019s family initially moved to the Bronx before also heading to Brooklyn. They met at New York City Community College, married and had three sons: Rome Kyn, Smile and Treasure.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 13, 1995, the Neals had the daughter they had long hoped for. Rome wanted to name her Kujichagulia in honor of the second principle of Kwanzaa, self-determination. He was voted down. They settled on Lia. She speaks fluent Cantonese and Mandarin…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olympic Swimmer Neal Built Her Dream in Brooklyn The New York Times 2012-07-15 William C. Rhoden, Sports Columnist Lia Neal (Al Bello\/Getty Images) Rome and Siu Neal with their grandson Rome Jin, their son Rome Kyn and his wife Ziggy (Victor J. Blue for The New York Times) Rome Neal walked up to the microphone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,8,20,25],"tags":[11304,2640,7222,18231,2327,11305,11306],"class_list":["post-24370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-asia","category-media-archive","category-usa","category-women","tag-lia-neal","tag-new-york-times","tag-sports","tag-swimming","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-william-c-rhoden","tag-william-rhoden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}