Sport
Cullen Jones: Erasing myths encourages kids to learn to swim
USA Swimmer Cullen Jones, left, gives swim lessons to children. PHOTO/Daniel Johnson/AP
Myth: “Black people don’t swim.”
That’s something Cullen Jones has heard all his life — even from his own family members.
“It’s a stereotype that unfortunately a lot of African Americans believe to be truth,” Jones explains. “I even have family members who say, ‘We don’t swim.”
But the 28-year-old is hard at working turning that around, and has made an impact on levels large and small. For more than four years, the Olympic gold medalist has been the face of the Make a Splash campaign, whose goal is to teach children, especially minorities, how to swim. It’s a program that’s close to Jones’ heart because he was almost a statistic. At the age of 5, he nearly drowned on an amusement park water ride, but instead turned that experience into a strength. Jones became only the third African-American to make the U.S. Olympic swimming team and just the second to win a gold medal.
