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This week on TALK! with AUDREY: CULLEN JONES currently holds the American record in the 50 freestyle and is one of the fastest sprinters in the world today. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Cullen was a member of the electrifying 400m free relay team that broke the world record and won Olympic gold in one of the most memorable races in history. With the victory, Cullen became the second African American to win Olympic swimming gold.
Having almost become a drowning statistic himself, the Olympian works to promote water safety, especially amongst minorities. As a National spokesman for Make a Splash, Cullen holds learn-to-swim clinics and speaks to children and parents across the nation. This summer, Jones is touring the country to promote the availability of low to no cost swimming lessons , “Make a Splash with Cullen Jones. Studies have shown that in ethnically-diverse communities, the youth drowning rate is nearly three times the national average. A study commissioned in 2008 by USA Swimming revealed that nearly six out of 10 African American and Hispanic/Latino children are unable to swim, nearly twice as many as their Caucasian counterparts
