Cullen Jones Discusses Bridging the Minority Swimming Gap and Diversifying the Sport of Swimming

Cullen Jones is a four-time Olympic medalist and the first African American swimmer to hold a world record, and while his time competing in the pool may be finished, his work there is far from done. 

Since earning his first Olympic medal in 2008, Jones has made it his mission to help others learn how to swim, with a focus on bridging the minority swimming gap and diversifying the sport that changed his life.

“I wanted my platform to be kind of like a Tiger or a Serena and Venus or a Jackie Robinson where it’s okay to do this sport — it’s okay. There were people before me, mind you, there were a ton of people before me, but I was blessed enough to be part of a relay that the world saw,” Jones said. “I wanted to use that platform to try to be a role model as best I could and a way for me to be able to do that was to get people to understand how important it is to learn how to swim.”

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