We wish to send congrats to Cullen Jones and the Men's Swim team who just won a Gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. Cullen Jones also made history as the first African-American swimmer to win a gold medal in swimming and to hold a world record. Cullen is a great role model too and we expect great things from him like Venus & Serena Williams and Tiger Woods. Unfortunately Cullen's father passed away and was unable to see his son's success. Cullen Jones should be happy to know that his dad would be proud. Click here to listen to an NPR interview with Cullen Jones to learn more about this champion Olympic swimmer.
Cullen Jones surprised the swimming world in August with a victory in the 50-meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals. The victory impressed Nike enough to sign Jones to the richest endorsement deal ever for a short distance swimmer, more than $2 million over the next seven years. Nike hopes this black swimmer will continue to prove himself in a sport desperately seeking diversity.
Swimming Champ Cullen Jones Returns Home
The United States has set a world record in the men's Olympic 400-meter freestyle relay preliminaries.
The team of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers won their heat Sunday night in 3 minutes, 12.23 seconds, erasing the old mark of 3:12.46 set by the U.S. at the 2006 Pan Pacific championships in Victoria, British Columbia.
The U.S. has not won the event at the Olympics since 1996, taking silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004.
Jones was part of the team that owned the previous record, becoming the first black swimmer to set a long-course world mark. source
