Swimmers kneel for the national anthem

The swim team made a statement during the senior night meet on October 11th by kneeling during the national anthem.

“We don’t agree with a lot of the things that are going on in America right now. That’s why we decided kneeling was appropriate and that it would be something we did as a team,” said senior Ellie Breen.

Although many girls of the team kneeled, senior captain Ema Rajic and others made sure no one felt pressured.

“We were actually gonna discuss it as a team before the meet but we just didn’t have time, so right before the national anthem Sarah and Ellie were like ‘Don’t feel pressure to kneel but we are going to kneel personally’,” said Rajic.  

At the meet, many people, including Uni swim team’s coaches and parents, were supportive of the swim team’s decision.

“I personally had a swimmer from another team come up to me and ask why we knelt, and after I explained she told me that she really respected that and she supported us,” said Breen.

After the meet, the team received some comments from athletic director Tim Bicknell.

“It was more of a misunderstanding that arose because he didn’t know what we were kneeling for,” said Breen.

Bicknell was not able to comment by the time of publication.

“Technically it’s our right to kneel,” said Rajic, “The Uni administration said it was okay for us to kneel.”

Kneeling for the anthem was a movement that started around last year by football player Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled to protest racial injustice in America. Since his act, many people all over the nation have joined in kneeling for the anthem to show support for the movement.