Olympian Seeks to Highlight Swimming in African-American Community

July 23, 2008 — -- A fierce and faithful athletic competitor, 24-year-old Cullen Jones hopes to make an international splash when he competes in next month's Olympic Games in Beijing, where he wants to help the U.S. team take back the 4x100 meter freestyle relay title it lost to the Australians in 2000 and South Africans in 2004.

The swimmer's rapid rise is especially astounding because the self-proclaimed "water baby," who just qualified for his first Olympic competition, nearly drowned when he was 5 years old.

As a young boy, Jones' parents took him to a water park where his father told him not to let go of his inner tube prior to heading down a big slide.

"When I got to the bottom of the pool after the slide, I flipped upside down and I was holding onto the inner tube, upside down. I passed out, panicked. And my dad had to jump in and come save me," said Jones, who, after a successful career at North Carolina State, emerged as one of the nation's fastest sprint swimmers.

His dad, Ron Jones, pulled him from the water. Cullen was unconscious, and lifeguards performed CPR on him. He coughed up a pint of water before taking his first breath and immediately asking his parents what the next ride was.

"I never really realized that day that I could've died," Jones said.

The Raleigh, N.C., resident's experience propelled him to learn how to swim.

It soon became his passion, despite his father's desire to have him pursue basketball. As one of the swiftest swimmers on the planet, Jones now holds the distinction of being only the third African-American to make an U.S. Olympic swimming squad.

Though he dreams of gold in a sport desperately seeking diversity, he also wants his story and performance to inspire African-American youth to learn how to swim.

"I think there's still a stigma within the African-American race that black people don't swim," the New Brunswick, N.J., native said. "I've talked to tons and tons of groups of African-American kids and asked them, 'Who likes to get in the water?' and all hands go up. I ask, 'Who can swim?' All hands go up. And I'm like, 'Do you understand what that means to swim? You can't be in the shallow end. You have to be in the deep end.' Half the hands drop."