Cullen Jones made history today as one of four men on the USA’s winning 4X100 freestyle relay team. They took the Gold with a world record time of 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds in an edge of your seat race that keeps swimmer Michael Phelps on track to bring eight medals home. Cullen Jones might be considered a bit of an unexpected swimming superstar. You see during one of his first experiences in water, he almost drowned. But that was a long time ago. And now as only the third black person to qualify for the Olympics in swimming, Cullen Jones has also positioned himself as an advocate and ambassador of swimming for reluctant black children.

Cullen Jones appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America recently and shared these thoughts:

“You’ve gotten a whole culture to believe that swimming isn’t something that they do or they’re not, I guess, physically capable of doing,” Jones said. “We have changed that stereotype.”

Jones has funneled his love for the sport, and helping minorities learn how to swim, into the USA Swimming Foundation’s Make A Splash Program. There, he is able to turn his words to actions.

“It’s just a torch that was passed on to me by many other black swimmers that have been before me — Maritza Correia, Byron Davis. It’s something that we’ve all tried to push and try and get more and more kids. It’s definitely not a burden; it’s just a cause of mine,” the 6-foot-5-inch Jones said.

And passing that torch has life and death implications for many children who have little access to swim instruction:

A 2007 study commissioned by USA Swimming and the University of Memphis found that 60 percent of African-American children don’t know how to swim. And the Centers for Disease Control said African-American kids are three times more likely to drown than their Caucasian counterparts. SOURCE

**Updated** Jones Gold Medal win is not the first for an American black man. That feat was accomplished by Anthony Ervin who became the first American black man to win a Gold Medal in the 50 meter freestyle in a tie with Gary Hall Jr. in 2000.

**UPDATE** A Surinamese swimmer by the name of Anthony Nesty was the first black man to win a Gold Medal in swimming. Nesty achieved this milestone at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. His event was the 100 m butterfly and Nesty out-touched then-favorite Matt Biondi by .01; Nesty finished in 53.00 and Biondi in 53.01. Nesty is the only Olympic medal winner from Suriname.

The first black athlete to win an Olympic medal in swimming was Enith Brigitha in Montreal in 1976.