Circling Back: How Jamal Hill Is Taking His Career To The Next Level

On any given day, Jamal Hill’s attention is focused on being an elite Para swimmer but also a number of other lofty pursuits.

The 30-year-old Paralympian runs his own Swim Up Hill foundation, is a member of the United Nations’ Young Leaders for Sustainable Development Goals cohort and works in his family’s trucking and logistics business, among the many bullet points on his impressive resume. So it makes sense that when he reflects on his Paralympic journey, he draws an analogy to a business.

“I’m proud to say I made it through the transition phase and am going to be remaining the CEO,” he said. “I was the founder, and now I’m going to be the CEO.”

So … what does that mean, exactly?

You can think of Hill’s early career as his start-up phase, he said. He was just 22 when he dropped out of college to pursue a professional swimming career in 2017. Originally dreaming of competing in the Olympics, Hill shifted his focus to the Paralympics the following year after learning to embrace the diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease that he’d spent years fighting against. His hard work not only got him to the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, but also onto the podium with a bronze medal in the 50-meter freestyle S9.

“I always describe that first quad as I was chasing this crazy dream, like people working out of their garages,” he said. “We were working hard and, I don’t know how, but we cracked the code and made something of it.”

But the three years in between Tokyo and the Paris Games in 2024 were challenging. In the business world, Hill continued with the analogy, it was like the time when venture capitalists might replace a company’s founder with a seasoned executive to take the organization to the next level.

What that meant in Hill’s world, he said, was that he was no longer the scrappy newcomer fighting for his dream, but he also wasn’t growing. What once worked didn’t anymore, and with the shortened, three-year quad before Paris, time was not on his side to figure it out.

“I was like, man, I’ve only got a year, a year and a half,” he said. “I can’t start from scratch now. I just have to roll with it.”

Making matters worse, Hill didn’t have the same passion he once did.

“So often I meet people who are living their dreams, and they hate their life,” Hill said. “And I’d fallen into that a little bit. It was all business, and I started to lose my heart. I was just doing it because I felt like I had to.”

He went into Paris in many ways, he said, fighting to find the motivation to go. His dream had almost become a burden.

One thing that kept him going was the knowledge that 30 of the most special people in his life, including his parents and now fiancée, planned to travel to Paris to watch him race. They didn’t have that opportunity the last time around because of COVID protocols.

Hill made the U.S. team, but this time he did not reach the podium in his signature race, finishing fifth.

“Head held high,” he said. “Whether or not it was my absolute best self, it was the absolute best that I had at that time. And I was able to walk away with a fifth-place finish.”

Afterward, he said, his family worried that he’d be too upset to celebrate, but Hill believes the way you win should also be the way you lose. He promised he was OK and still gets emotional when he remembers walking out of the arena and being embraced by the people who loved him whether he won 18 medals or no medals at all.

“And even though it didn’t turn out like we wanted it to, we still went out that night and partied like I’d won 18 gold medals, so that was a super powerful moment for me,” he said.

Now, the Paralympics are coming to Hill’s hometown of Los Angeles.

He was part of the official handover of the torch at the end of the Paris Games, and that brings him to the proclamation that he’s staying on as CEO. Part of that means building a team around him to help him find success in 2028.

Hill’s former head coach is now a technique coach he works with twice a week, and his new head coach is a lifelong friend and mentor who knows his swimming well. He’s working with strength and conditioning coaches both at home and at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as well as sports scientists, nutritionists and others. He’ll be working out of the Los Angeles Athletic Club for the foreseeable future. It’s a lot of growth, he said, and a lot of maturity in the progression of his career.

This year, Hill plans to compete in six major meets, including the world championships in the fall. What he really wants is to become the best S9 swimmer in the world in the 50-meter freestyle and become competitive in the 100-meter freestyle to the point where he’s a lock to make the relay teams in Los Angeles. He’s also working on mixing breaststroke into his repertoire.

“We’re in operation domination, that’s what it is,” he said. “(My team) all share a Google Doc and a team chat, and all the names are ‘Operation Domination.’ My goal the next four years is to move into a position where I’m dominating. That’s my goal.”

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.