Maritza Correia McClendon

The First Black Female on the U.S. Olympic Swim Team

Portrait of Maritza Correia McClendon preparing to do laps adapted from a photo courtesy of the USA Swimming Foundation.

Maritza Correia McClendon did not set out to be an Olympic star. She didn’t intend to be a swimmer at all. Her introduction to the sport came at the suggestion of her doctor when she was seven years old. He diagnosed her with scoliosis and offered swimming as a treatment. Little did either of them know that Maritza would go on to make history as the first black woman to qualify for a spot on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Swim Team and win a medal during competition. She also set a U.S. and world swimming record and was the first Afro-Latino and American female to achieve this.

Maritza Correia McClendon was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on December 23, 1981. Her parents, Vincent and Anne, emigrated from Guyana the year before. In 1990, Maritza and her family moved to the United States and settled in Tampa, Florida. In a 2020 podcast interview, Maritza said:

“When I moved to the United States at about nine years old, I immediately knew our family was different. I walked into a team where my brother [swim coach Justin Correia] and I were a handful of the black athletes on the team.”

Portrait of Maritza Correia McClendon. Illustrated by Daniel J. Middleton.

That continued to be the case for many years, where Maritza could count on one hand the black swimmers she encountered at swim meets—these are U.S. swimming competitions between athletes who gather in large numbers. Maritza experienced racism during these early years, but she persevered and found encouragement and inspiration in Olympic champions like Amy Deloris Van Dyken. While watching Van Dyken compete in the 1996 Summer Olympics, Maritza saw the full potential of competitive swimming, and she wanted to become an Olympian.

Maritza joined the swim team while attending Tampa Bay Technical High School. In her senior year, she became a U.S. national champion for the 50-meter freestyle. Her other high school achievements include being a six-time state champion in five separate events and earning a spot on the USA National Junior Team in 1997 and the USA Short Course World Championship Team in 1999. The USA national team competed in Sweden, and the Short Course team competed in Hong Kong.

Maritza failed to make the U.S. Olympic swim team in 2000, which was a devastating setback, but she continued her winning streak at the University of Georgia. Before graduating with a sociology degree in 2005, Maritza became a 27-time All-American and one of the most decorated swimmers in the history of the NCAA (the National Collegiate Athletic Association). Maritza also set a few records in college, and in February 2016, the University of Georgia inducted her and three other athletes into the Circle of Honor.

Maritza’s swimming career ended in 2008 after she received a double-shoulder injury. She married Chad McClenon in 2010 and adopted his surname, and the couple had two children: Kason and Sanaya Anne. In 2013, Maritza became the spokeswoman for Swim 1922, a partnership between USA Swimming and Sigma Gamma Rho sorority. Swim 1922 is an initiative that seeks to decrease drowning rates in the black community by increasing swim participation through nationwide swimming events.

Maritza and her family. Photo credit: Twitter.

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This article appears in 12 Extraordinary Black Latinos.

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