Olympic gold medal winner, Rowdy Gaines conducts a swimming clinic in the ConocoPhillips Fitness Center pool.

ConocoPhillips recently renewed its 36-year commitment to the sport of swimming with a 10-year sponsorship agreement of USA Swimming, representing both a corporate sponsorship and a charitable donation commitment. Since 1973, the company's contributions have supported the USA Swimming community through the National Championships and other international competitions, publication of club development materials, and other areas. This renewed partnership creates a mutual opportunity for ConocoPhillips and USA Swimming to make an impact at all levels of the sport from learning to swim, to gold medals.

On the grassroots level, ConocoPhillips’ charitable donation to the Make a Splash initiative will help save lives by giving thousands of children – who would otherwise not have the opportunity – the ability to take swimming lessons. This water safety initiative is a series of events created by the USA Swimming Foundation (the fundraising arm of USA Swimming) to combat youth drowning rates, especially in ethnically-diverse communities where the youth drowning rate is three times the national average.

Olympian Cullen Jones is the face of the program, which kicked off May 20 in Houston. Make a Splash organizes the nation’s top learn-to-swim providers, like the YMCA, in this national awareness campaign. The main objective of the initiative is to target families with children from non-swimming households who are eight times more likely to be at-risk of drowning, and to educate parents about water safety while offering no to low-cost swimming lessons to children.

Drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental death in kids ages 1 to 14, but this number is 100 percent preventable. By arming children with the necessary water safety skills and knowledge, Make a Splash is breaking the current cycle and creating generations of parents-to-be who will know how to swim.

ConocoPhillips will remain the title sponsor of the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships, the marquee domestic event of the year for swimming. The 2009 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships was held July 7-11, in Indianapolis, Ind., and attracted the stars of the 2008 Olympic Swim Team including Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Cullen Jones and more.

“Our longstanding relationship with this great organization represents a united effort to support swimming as a safe and healthy lifetime activity,” said Jim Mulva. “We look forward to our continued involvement for years to come.”