Swimming Social: Systemic sexual harassment uncovered at Chicago Park District

Photos of Blackhawk Park pool prohibited

Teresa Albano
8 min readJul 31, 2021

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Blackhawk Park locker room. All photos by author.

I don’t like swimming in 20-yard pools because it’s an extra flip turn in the 100-yard sets. I swam backstroke in high school and many, many schools have 20-yard pools. I always loved when we were at a school with a 25-yard pool because I would swim faster. Twenty-yard pools are a thing in old Chicago and many park district pools are 20 yards.

That’s what you have at Blackhawk Park pool: 20 yards and 4 lanes. Surprisingly, doing laps there felt good. Tiled bottom with clear black lines and a T at the wall for flip turns. The water was just right for me. Not too cool. Not too warm. There was one other swimmer, a woman around our age, who said she comes to Blackhawk only when she can’t get a lane at Kosciusko. “I was swimming last Friday morning so I couldn’t get on the computer and grab a reservation. You have to be on and ready at 9 a.m. Kosciusko fills up fast.”

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Teresa Albano
Teresa Albano

Written by Teresa Albano

Writers interpret the world in various ways, the point is to change it.

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