On a warm summer day in Jacksonville where the community often seeks solace in the surrounding waters, Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy joined forces with Mayor Donna Deegan to advocate for a cause that goes beyond medals and podiums—preventing drownings through a summer swim safety initiative. The duo appeared at the Blue Cypress Park pool to kickstart a campaign that brings swim education and safety to the forefront, especially for the city's youngest residents, according to Action News Jax.
Mayor Deegan and Murphy were united in their message that knowing how to swim is vital, "Unfortunately, we lose a lot of people to drowning because they don’t know how to swim, and we’re surrounded by water here [in Jacksonville]," Deegan said, while Murphy added that drowning is preventable, and "learning to swim is the best protection," they shared this message during an event held at Blue Cypress Park pool, as reported by News4Jax. The swim safety initiative includes swim assessments, education events, and outreach activities targeted to decrease the number of drowning incidents among children—the leading cause of preventable death for young children in the area.
Florida's chilling statistics speak to the urgency of the campaign with "97 children drowned in Florida" in 2023, and a troubling rise in drownings among children with autism in the past two years, with "35 children with autism drowned in 2024, and 15 more have already lost their lives in 2025, as of July 19," as revealed by Action News Jax. Murphy's Goldfish Swim School in St. Johns County is part of the effort to educate young ones, offering indoor lessons for children starting from four months old, with hopes to broaden the program to more areas in the community.
Reaffirming the gravity of water safety, 200,000 people have ventured into Jacksonville's pools this summer also the city officials are not only focusing on children but on the whole community, including adult and seniors—an emphasis placed by the city's director of parks and recreation, they reported that "3,000 swim lessons so far at the city’s 30 pools" and the hiring over "400 lifeguards and pool professionals," a push reflective of an understanding that water can be both refuge and risk, underscored in remarks by Mayor Deegan to JaxToday that "every person in Jacksonville deserves the chance to learn how to swim."
