Four generations of the Knowles family shared a unique bond in the pool on June 21, with each of the family members participating in an iconic 200 freestyle relay at the Bahamas National Swimming Championships opening ceremony. The Knowles family members raced in relay order based on their age, with 14-year-old Mason Knowles first, 42-year-old Jeremy Knowles second, 69-year-old Andy Knowles third, and 93-year-old Percy Knowles as the anchor. The family finished with a time of 3:23.60 in the exhibition time trial, a feat that could be heard loudly around the Betty Kelly-Kenning Aquatic Centre facility as people proudly cheered the Knowles family on during and after their highly acclaimed race.
Yet, there is a much richer history behind each of the Knowles family members that makes this collaboration so remarkable.
Speaking with the Knowles family was a unique experience, as I learned the story behind Percy, Andy, Jeremy, and Mason’s extraordinary lives. Percy Knowles shared that his three loves are sailing, swimming, and singing. Andy chimed in saying, “If there’s time, maybe he’ll sing to you after the interview.”
Percy smiled as he spoke about sailing, his passion and skills that took him to the Olympics in 1960, 1964, and 1968, and 1972. Percy competed in three different sailing classes, with his most prominent finish of fifth place in the Star class at the 1968 Olympics. His brother Durward Knowles also competed as a sailor in the Star class. Durward participated in eight Olympics, claiming a bronze in 1956 and gold in 1964.
Percy shared his thoughts on experiencing the Olympics in the 1960s, “It was customary in those days to march into the stadium. And the stadium was packed with roughly 100,000 people. We’d all march into the stadium, march around, and then go in the middle and sit down in alphabetical order,” he said.
In Olympic sailing, sailors compete in a triangular course. Competing teams go three different directions so they have to deal with the wind in three different scenarios. The sailors have several different races and get to throw out their worst finish. The points of each race are then totaled, and the countries with the lowest number of points win the top spots.
The 1968 Olympics in Acapulco were met with light winds where the two Knowles brothers, Percy and Durward, sailed in the Star class in Duward’s boat. This Olympics had quite a few “jinxes.” During one race their mast broke so they had to throw that race out, which was allowed as only five races were scored. The rules at this time stated that the course was not allowed to be changed if there was a wind shift during the race. On the last race, the brothers were in third place. After the first lap, they had moved up to second place. Coming around the second lap, the wind shifted and they dropped to 17th and managed to finish 14th. Percy and Duward ended up in fifth place overall.
Percy’s love of sailing is combined with a passion for distance swimming. When he was 18, Percy competed in a 3-mile open water race through the Nassau Harbour, from the beach west of British Colonial Hotel to Montagu Beach in the east.
“I swam up the harbor between Nassau and Paradise Island. “Everyone kept saying, ‘Percy’s going to win, he knows the tides,’ and that’s just what happened.”
He continued, “Marston was chasing me…he sprinted. He reduced his distance but he didn’t catch me.”
In 2006 at age 75, Percy competed in his first US National Masters meet and won several gold medals. Since then, he has competed in ten US National Masters swim meets and 4 FINA Masters World Championships. Next year, Percy will compete in the 95-year-old age group as a master’s swimmer.
When asked what he enjoys most about swimming he responded confidently while laughing, “Coming in first!”
Andy spoke up next, and it was obvious he has a love for swimming as much or more than his father. Andy grew up swimming at the Nassau Yacht Club swim team in the 1960s which was the only age group swim program in the country at that time. Nassau Yacht Club was the same club Andy’s uncle, Durward, sailed for when he won a gold medal.
Andy loved swimming around the docks, at the beach, and in the pool. Soon after, he fell in love with the sport. Just like his dad, Andy was a distance freestyle swimmer. He built a name for himself locally competing in the 3-mile harbor marathon which Percy was also known for, with people running with him along the harbor as he swam.
After swimming at the University of Miami under Bill Diaz, Andy raced at the 1976 Olympics, which was the first time the Bahamas was represented independently as a country at the Games. In 1977, Andy became a coach and created his own club team Swift Swimming with his wife Nancy in 1990. During his coaching career, Andy was a 6-time Olympic coach, helping his son Jeremy make it to the Olympics three of those times.
“It’s been a lot of fun and joy and excitement going from a swimmer to a coach.”
He described their family connection through Swift Swimming and how swimming and sailing have brought their family together.
Andy said, “We’ve always been in either sailing or swimming.”
Swift Swimming has transitioned into a master’s team where Percy, Andy, and Jeremy participate regularly. To the master’s swimmers on the team, they all know Percy as “D” which stands for Dad. They look to Percy as an inspiration and their reason for coming to master’s team practice.
Andy published the book, Let’s Swim Bahamas, last year, which has a lot of history of the Bahamas including sailing and swimming. He mentioned that incredibly, at least one member of the Knowles family has been at the Olympics either as a coach or an athlete for 60 consecutive years from 1948 to 2008.
“One reason I wrote the book is because I feel like I’m the link between the old past [of swimming] until now.”
Andy explained that he was coached by Neville Hall in the 60s (who began coaching in the 1930s), and sharing his plethora of experience with the younger swimmers of today as a coach himself has helped bring the old world of swimming and the new world of swimming together.
He also discussed his learn to swim program (also titled Let’s Swim Bahamas) saying, “Ninety-seven percent of the Bahamas is water, and 97% of Bahamians don’t know how to swim. We need to get Bahamians swimming.”
So far, through the Let’s Swim Bahamas program, the Knowles family has taught over 6,000 kids to swim from various primary schools in The Bahamas.
Yet, Jeremy has his own story to tell. Just like his father and grandfather, he fell in love with the water at a young age. He progressed through the sport quickly, which he said was easy due to his dad being a coach.
“I always wanted to race the bigger kids. It was just a natural fit for me to evolve pretty quickly in the sport because I loved it so much.”
Jeremy continued, “My dad did a pretty good job of finding the balance between being my dad and being my coach, especially as I continued to develop into the teenage years making a name for myself in the swimming scene at an elite level. So there was a balance of him trying to push me and challenge me but also make sure we have an unconditional loving relationship between father and son.”
Jeremy was coached by his father in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and Andy remained his Bahamas national coach for his last two Olympics. Jeremy swam for Auburn University, honing in on his 200 fly as his top event. He swam under David Marsh, who led the men’s team to an NCAA victory in 2003 and 2004. Marsh continued his winning streak with the men’s team being undefeated three years after Jeremy graduated.
Jeremy said, “Swimming is a hard sport to be involved in. It can be known as a bit of a lonely sport because your head is in the water a lot, and it takes hours and hours of conditioning to be at an elite level. I think it was a unique thing that my siblings and myself were able to still have “dad” time because we were all swimming. We didn’t lose out on that because of the sport. Actually, it was the sport that allowed us to have that time with our dad.”
He added, “With swimming being part of the Knowles family for so long, there was a sense of pride to continue that, and to continue to be in the sport together.”
The family all laughed when I asked Mason how long he had been swimming competitively. He looked embarrassed, as I waited patiently for an answer. “A few days,” he said laughing. Both Andy and Jeremy informed me that Mason was not a competitive swimmer, but that they had convinced him to join the relay to be a part of the Knowles family tradition. This is the second time four generations of the Knowles family have participated in the relay.
Although Mason is new to the sport he said, “It’s probably the only sport I actually enjoy, so I think I can be passionate about it too.”
It will be interesting to see the Knowles family continue to share their love of swimming from generation to generation, exuding a drive and fervor for a sport that lives on in their hearts and minds.
“Jeremy said, “The water is something that I think pulls us together.”
For more articles by Amy Padilla, contributing writer for the PAQ Athletes Committee, check out Swim Chat.
