1. Lia Neal was born on February 13,1995 and is an American former professional swimmer who specialized in freestyle events.
18 Facts About Lia Neal
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Lia Neal was the second female African-American swimmer to make a US Olympic team.
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Lia Neal was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1995, the daughter of Siu and Jerome Neal.
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Lia Neal started swimming when she was six years old in New York City.
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Lia Neal attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart School in New York City, where she was a member of the club swim team, Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics.
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Lia Neal ranked 28th in the 50-meter freestyle and 78th in the 100-meter freestyle.
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Lia Neal was 17 years old when she became the second female African-American swimmer to qualify for a US Olympic swimming team.
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Lia Neal was highlighted for the geographical diversity she brought to the US Olympic swimming team as she was not from a warm-weather state, such as Florida or California, where US Olympic swimmers typically come from.
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Swimming the third leg, Lia Neal had a split of 53.65 seconds and the US team finished with a total time of 3:34.24, an American record.
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Swimming the lead-off leg in the heats, Lia Neal posted a time of 54.15.
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Lia Neal made history with fellow African-American swimmers Anthony Ervin and Cullen Jones by being the first three African-Americans on a US Olympic swim team with more than one African-American swimmer.
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Lia Neal was a senior in high school and the first student from the Convent of the Sacred Heart since its founding in 1881 to compete in an Olympic Games.
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In 2015, Lia Neal became one of the first three African-American swimmers to place in the top three spots at the 100-yard freestyle in any Women's Division I NCAA Swimming Championship; Simone Manuel was first, Lia Neal was second and Natalie Hinds was third.
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From 2013 to 2017, Lia Neal competed collegiately for Stanford University where she was an 8-time NCAA champion.
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In July 2019 at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Lia Neal anchored the 4x100-meter freestyle relay swimming a 54.41 and winning a silver medal in the finals.
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Lia Neal started the channel on August 19,2016, and began uploading videos related to the diversification of perceptions of swimmers in March 2020 when she announced she was becoming a YouTuber.
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In May 2021, Lia Neal announced her retirement from the sport of swimming.
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Lia Neal is Catholic, having been baptized at Sacred Heart Church in Brooklyn.