Naima Kankam: The 14-year-old swimming champion awaiting stardom

As talent goes, Naima Kankam is an intriguing case; a special kind of girl who has great prospects to be one of Ghana’s finest swimmers.

At the tender age of just 14, Naima has over 15 medals in her closet, with most of them being gold and silver.

This young, talented swimmer has captured more than just a collection of medals in a brief period. Her remarkable ability lies in how effortlessly she embraces the water and swiftly accelerates at an impressive pace.

My initial encounter with Naima Kankam was during the recent Citi TV National Swimming Championship at the GAF Sports Complex in Burma Camp, where she truly stood out.

She was simply unmatched, sweeping gold medal after gold medal at the end of the one-day swimming competition organized in partnership with the Ghana Swimming Association.

So much was the impression she made that led me to tell her story and seek answers to find out who this 14-year-old is and why she is so good.

Following her remarkable achievements, I decided to pay a visit to the home of this young prodigy. Naima resides in Tesano, Accra, alongside her parents, Jeffrey and Nadia, and her five siblings; a family of eight in total.

This visit aimed to gain a deeper insight into the life of this talented individual and her supportive family.

Naima’s sporting genes were passed down from her Ghanaian father who was an athlete in his time at Achimota School, although her Ivorian mother, Nadia, was not so involved in sports in her younger days.

A day in a life for this teenager starts very early with her first training session scheduled for 4:30 am every day. From there, she returns home and then takes a short break before jumping in the kitchen with her mom and siblings to prepare some breakfast.

Shortly after this, she jumps right into her books at home.

Naima and two of her siblings, Jeffrey and Luke, are homeschooled and have very rigorous educational schedules.

I asked their parents why they chose that option and how that has helped the children to pursue their interest in swimming.

“Indeed, it is an unconventional way and that is exactly why we embarked on this journey. My work also allowed us to take this decision too. Not only that, my older three children took the normal school system which is a very chew and pour system, and nothing had changed in over 100 years,” Naima’s father said.

“We needed a different way to make them learn and meet world standards, and if you compare Naima, Jeffrey and Luke to their older siblings at that age, these one have a better understanding of the world system. This has worked for us but it may not work for everybody so yeah,” he added.

By far, they study more than they would have in a normal school system. We determine when they go on a break and we manage their time. It is as a result of this that we are able to infuse swimming into the schedule. It is flexible and we determine when they can swim and what not,” Nadia Kankam highlighted.

Away from school, I probed to find out when Jeffrey and Nadia Kankam first recognised Naima’s keen interest in swimming and the urge to pursue it actively.

“It wasn’t a moment, it was much more of a process which made us believe she has that skillset to swim competitively. It started from when I decided to teach the children how to swim,. I was in the same moment we decided to homeschool them, and we needed a social activity to balance it. Naima, in particular, picked up swimming quickly and then we joined a club and picked it up from there,” Jeffrey Kankam said.

“For her, she wasn’t really much of a hard trainer but anytime she entered competitions, she was explosive. Even at a point, she stopped swimming for about a year but we kept her close to the pool and she started coaching the younger swimmers,” her father added.

Life can be certainly overwhelming sometimes and confusing for many people regardless of their age, so I asked Naima’s mother how she helps her deal with and navigate through life.

My relationship with Naima goes beyond just a mother and daughter thing. I am a very open mother and we share everything. We speak about menstrual periods, we talk a lot about most things and this allows her to ask questions and this allow me to point out what the red flags are by using my life experiences. I get her to be very responsible and it is great. Once in a while, she rebels but this is our way, we have a good balance,” she said.

“Sometimes too, we hit a brick wall but we have a good community of mothers who she looks up to and if I am struggling to get to her, they come in and then we come back on track,” she added.

Both parents expressed how proud they are anytime they see their daughter compete at the highest level while acknowledging the difficulty in their kid’s schedules. For them, it does not matter the medals they win, but rather the desire to keep pushing always and learning what is important in their life.

Naima’s older brother, Jeffrey Kankam Jr, who is also a national junior swimmer, echoed his pride in the strides his sister has made in the sport and wishes her the very best if she keeps on swimming.

From their lovely home, the Citi Sports team then had the chance to see her train with her swimming team, Marlins Swim Club at the Tesano Sports Club.

At the Marlins Swim Club, Naima Kankam is not only one of the senior swimmers but a coach for the younger children who have shown interest in the sport.

But on the day of our visit, she was in the pool with her peers, going through some light swimming drills to ease them back into active training after excelling at the Citi TV National Swimming Championship in Burma Camp.

With the drills actively underway, I pulled aside one of the assistant coaches of Marlins, Lady Rowena Majid Michelle, to have a better understanding of the kind of swimmer and girl Naima is.

“Naima is a sweet girl, she is a very nice person who has great potential. What makes her stand out is her mentality. She can really push herself and that makes her extra competitive. She has a mindset which most of the girls in her category don’t have and that makes her special,” she said.

I also approached the coach and founder of Marlins Swim Club, Raphael Quaye, who spoke about his first experience with the young swimmers.

“My first interaction with Naima goes way back, more than five years ago when I first started this club. I came to the Tesano Sports Club with a handful of children to begin my swimming club [Marlins] then I saw her swimming with her siblings. I tried having a conversation with them because I realised their technique in swimming was different and I knew a little coaching would make them great but they directed me to their father and we picked it up from there,” he said.

For Raphael, the sky is just the beginning for Naima if she decides to continue on the path of swimming.

“For Naima, the sky is not the limit, if she continues with this commitment. [With support from] her parents and exposing her to a lot of competitions, she can become the next big thing for Ghana swimming,” he added.

Friends and colleagues of Naima, Michael Crabbe-Mann and Rachael Laryea spoke highly of the teenager who is gradually taking her place as one of Ghana’s best swimmers at such a tender age.

I then spoke to Naima herself, who started pursuing swimming at the age of eight, and inquired why she chose this sporting discipline and not any other.

“Swimming is the first sport I actually ever tried. We were learning how to swim with our father and I was eight years old at that time and from there we joined Marlins after Raphael Quaye spoke to our father and it has been like this since then,” she said.

I then asked how she balances her homeschooling programme and actively pursues swimming as not just a mere hobby.

“I make schedules and then stick to it. We train twice daily and I just ensure I stick to it. I wake up early, like 4:30am, then we come to the pool and then go home, study the entire day and then come back to the pool later in the evening,” Naima mentioned.

Naima then spoke of what inspires her to be the best among her peers.

“I made a commitment to swim and I try my best to meet it. I sometimes don’t meet it but once I start, regardless the result, I just get to it. A goal is a goal and I certainly make the most of them,” the young swimmer said.

On the surface, this 14-year-old faces the water head-on, but understandably she does feel nervous before and during her contests.

“I always get butterflies. That feeling never goes away no matter the number of competitions or events I partake in. It does not stop until I finish and I think that is what pushes me because I subconsciously want to beat my friends,” she highlighted.

Despite the uncertainties of life, young Naima believes she will keep swimming as she constantly continues to search for her true self.

“If I ever stop swimming, I think it is maybe because I have gone to the university and that may make me tone down on competitive swimming, but regardless of what life throws at me, I hope to keep swimming,” she mentioned.

This wunderkind, like many others, was affected by COVID and just like other humans, life events make her burn out but only time can tell if Nadia Kankam can reach the heights of Kaylee McKeown, Lilly King, Katie Ledecky and Sarah Sjöström.

Until then, let’s keep an eye on her, she is SPECIAL.

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