Ripples #47

Compiled and Written by Lenny Giteck

Rodney King Dead at 47 —
Found at Bottom of Pool

Rodney King has died at the age of 47, the apparent victim of a drowning. According to news accounts, his body was found at the bottom of the swimming pool at his Rialto, Calif., home by his fiancée; unfortunately, she was unable to render assistance to King because she reportedly doesn’t know how to swim.

In 1991, King’s beating by Los Angeles police officers – which was videotaped by a bystander – later sparked a week of violence after three white police officers involved were acquitted and a mistrial was announced in the case of a fourth officer.

Fifty-three people were killed in the rioting; estimates of material damages range up to $1 billion. At the time of the riots, King famously asked, “Can we all get along?” Since then, King was involved in various run-ins with the law because of alleged drug and alcohol abuse. He spent a number of stints in jail and rehabilitation programs.

A report on nytimes.com notes that a neighbor of King’s said “she often saw him swimming late at night.” Indeed, King was known to be a strong swimmer. After his body was discovered, Rialto police announced there was no indication of foul play. Nevertheless, an autopsy has been conducted, although the results of toxicology tests won’t be available for several weeks.

The nytimes.com article quotes King as saying in an interview this past April, “It’s taken years to get used to the situation I’m in in life and the weight it holds. One of the cops in the jail said: ‘You know what? People are going to know who you are when you’re dead and gone. A hundred years from now, people [are] still going to be talking about you.’ It’s scary, but at the same time it’s a blessing.”

Perhaps, but it is hard for Ripples not to see King’s drowning as a sad ending to a very sad, troubled life — one not particularly well-lived.

Video: To watch a lengthy CNN documentary on Rodney King that aired in early 2011, click here.

‘Olympic Swimmers’ Painter
LeRoy Neiman Dead at 91

Famous painter LeRoy Neiman, who specialized in capturing on canvas sports figures in action, has died at the age of 91 in a Manhattan hospital. According to a report on daily mail.co.uk, the actual cause of death has not been revealed.

A colorful figure in his own right, the mustachioed Neiman was renowned – some would say notorious – for creating even more colorful paintings. Although his highly commercial work had many detractors in the art world, he was indisputably popular with the public.

Neiman was widely credited with creating the entire genre of sports art: Among other major athletic events, he covered the Olympics — one well-known painting by Neiman is entitled “Olympic Swimmers” — the Super Bowl and championship boxing matches.

Image: To see the painting “Olympic Swimmers,” click here.
Video: To watch a TV interview with LeRoy Neiman, click here.

London Hotel Offers Classes
In Synchronized Swimming

A couple of installments ago, Ripples featured an article from the Canadian Web site theglobeandmail.com that described the tough physical challenges inherent in synchronized swimming. The Ripples headline: “Think Synchronized Swimming Is So Easy? Then You Try It!”

Now you have a chance to do just that – if you’re planning on attending the upcoming Olympic Games in London (or just being in the British capital at that time) and you also happen to be of the female persuasion.

According to the travel Web site gatling.com, The Berkeley Hotel in London is joining forces with Aquabatix, an award-winning synchronized swimming team, to offer classes in synchronized swimming during July and August. The Olympic Games are slated to be held July 27 — August 12.

The Web site explains:

Swimmers will learn several key skills including the “egg beater” kick, a form of treading water that allows for stability and height above the water while leaving the hands free to perform strokes, as well as “sculling,” hand movements used to propel the body, which are the most essential part of synchronized swimming. The session is completed with a choreographed routine with accompanying music.

The 90-minute classes at the swank hotel will cost 125 ($195). Sorry gents, the lessons apparently are limited to the ladies.

Swimming Enables Young Israeli
Terrorism Victim to Heal, Compete

A decade ago, an Arab terrorist broke into the home of Asael Shabo and his family and proceeded to murder his mother and three brothers in cold blood right before his eyes. Shabo – who was 9 years old at the time – only survived by playing dead on the floor; he remained absolutely silent for 45 minutes despite having nine bullets and a great deal of shrapnel in his right leg. His father and other brother were not at home at the time of the attack.

Doctors were forced to amputate the leg – but as difficult as his physical wounds were, the psychological and spiritual trauma he suffered may have been even more painful. A year after the attack, Shabo found himself at the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled in the city of Ramat Gan, where he was to receive hydrotherapy treatments. It wasn’t long, however, before he took up swimming, an activity that soon became a passion of his.

Now 19 years old, Shabo is training hard to be a member of the Israeli national team at the 2016 Paralympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He credits swimming with helping him overcome the trauma of what he witnessed. As Shabo notes in an article on the Web site aish.com:

“Learning to swim was tough, but after I learned how to swim properly, being alone in the water gave me two important things: It gave me the quiet and the solitude to digest and internalize what had happened, and it gave me a physical outlet to work through the emotional pain of watching my mom and brothers murdered. I literally swam my way through the emotional turmoil I was going through, and the mental anguish I went through for years afterwards.”

Currently, Shabo is Israel’s 50-meter freestyle champion among disabled swimmers; in addition he plays on the national wheelchair basketball team and serves as a coach to younger physically challenged athletes at the center in Ramat Gan.

Cancer Survivors Rejoice
By Swimming with Dolphins

Twelve cancer survivors recently got an opportunity to swim with dolphins at the Miami Seaquarium – an event organized by the group Relay for Life in support of the American Cancer Society. For the survivors, it was a celebration of the fact they are still alive.

One of the survivors was 19-year-old Lana Chehabeddine, who was diagnosed with leukemia 11 years ago. Although doctors said at the time doctors that she had only a 15 percent chance of surviving, she has been free of cancer for the past nine years. “It’s uplifting to see what everyone has been through,” the young woman was quoted as saying in a report on the event on miamiherald.com. “You understand each other on a deeper level.”

As a result of her experience, Chehabeddine plans to become a pediatrician and is attending the University of Miami on a full scholarship to study medicine.

Chris Whittaker, a 55-year-old survivor of both kidney cancer and leukemia, explained on miamiherald.com, “When you meet someone and you tell them you have cancer, they don’t say it, but you can feel the negative energy. But this was awesome; I could feel the energy of the dolphins. And it was all positive.”

Although the treatment Whittaker underwent has left him blind, the Web site noted “he described feeling the smooth skin of the dolphins as they swam under his hand.”

And with that, Ripples once again says…
Until next time, happy watershaping to you!