TONY COX, host:
From NPR News, this is News & Notes. I'm Tony Cox. Here's a listener favorite from 2008.
(Soundbite of NPR's News & Notes, August 14, 2008)
FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
I'm Farai Chideya. Every day at the Olympics, someone enters the history books. Last Sunday, the U.S. men's swim team tore up the four-by-100-meter freestyle relay, earning them a gold medal and a world record. Cullen Jones swam the third leg of the race, and he made history in another way: He's only the second African-American to get a gold medal in swimming. Later in the show, we'll get a briefing on the Olympics with Tony Cox and Bill Rhoden, but now we have Cullen Jones with us, speaking from the Olympics in Beijing. Hey, Cullen.
Mr. CULLEN JONES (Swimming, United States, 2008 Beijing Olympics): Hi. How are you? Thanks for having me.
CHIDEYA: So, how's Beijing treating you? And more importantly, how do you feel right now, having gotten a gold?
Mr. JONES: I'm on cloud nine since I've gotten the gold. Beijing has been absolutely amazing. It's a great venue. The pool is fast. It's - this city completely lights up. And everyone that's here is just really excited about hosting the Olympics, and it's a great environment.
CHIDEYA: So, this is really the culmination of years of hard work, and let's go back in time. How did you...
Mr. JONES: Sure.
CHIDEYA: And why did you get into swimming as a child?
Mr. JONES: As a child, I was originally doing basketball and gymnastics. And I went to a swim meet with one of my friends just to support her, and - my mom always called me a water baby. And I loved watching kids diving in and being competitive in the water. That's exactly what I wanted to do.
And I looked at my mom and I said, you know, since I couldn't do gymnastics because I was going to be too tall - they were telling I had to stop - I said, like, I'd love to start swimming. And my mom said, well, you're going to have to see it until the end. And I'm like, all right, well, I can do that. And we've just been going since. I've been setting goals and trying to break them ever since that.
CHIDEYA: You also had a really tough experience in the water. Can you tell us a little bit about that, when you were a kid?
Mr. JONES: Sure. When I was five years old, I almost drowned at an amusement park, Dorney Park in Philadelphia. There was an inner tube ride that my dad wanted to get on, and he was my hero at the time. And I was like, yes, I'd love to get on the inner tube. Yeah. Let's do it. My mom felt that I was going to be a little too small for it, but we convinced her that it would be OK. And after waiting in a long line to get up to the top, my dad went first and he made me promise that I wouldn't let go of the inner tube. And I said, yeah, Dad. I'll do it. Sure. Not a problem.
Well, he went down first and I heard him screaming the whole way down, which made me a little nervous. But when I went down, I did exactly what he told me. I held on as tight as I could. But when I hit the pool of water at the bottom of the inner tube ride, I ended up flipping upside down and holding on upside down underwater. And unfortunately, I ended up passing out. And I had the whole procedure done. I had CPR done, resuscitation. And I came back, and I was like, yeah. What's next? You know, it didn't even faze me but - until later, when I started telling the story that I could have died that day.
CHIDEYA: It strikes me that you must be fearless in more ways than one, because in order to compete at this level, I assume you have to be brave. You have to be willing to step out on faith. So, what do you do to prep before you go out and swim?
Mr. JONES: One of the things that my coach used to tell me is that, you know, the hard part's over when you're at a swim meet. You've done all the practicing. You've done all the training. I wouldn't say fearless. I'm usually pretty nervous before I swim any event, even if I feel like I'm going to win. And on Sunday, it was no different. I was shaking behind the blocks, I was so nervous. It was my first Olympics, and I wanted to really perform well because I had three other guys that were kind of depending on me to swim fast. But all the preparation, all the training that I've done prepared me for it.
CHIDEYA: If you had to rate your performance in the relay on a scale of one to 10, how do you think you did that day?
Mr. JONES: That day I would - I am a very hard critic on myself, so I would never give myself a 10. Because being a sprinter, we strive for perfection, because it's such a short amount of meters to go. I would give myself probably about an eight. It was a fast swim, but I can always go back and try to get faster.
CHIDEYA: We have seen - most of us have seen on television or online these images of the Opening Ceremonies and the pageantry that is going on in Beijing right now. From an athlete's perspective, what was the most interesting or impressive moment that you've had on the ground? It doesn't have to be a big ceremony, but what let you know, wow, I'm here in Beijing, and I'm at the Olympics, and you know, I'm in the moment?
Mr. JONES: It was definitely when the meet started, once the races were starting to go and I was watching the fans come in. And I was standing on deck right before they closed it off so that the press would come in and the cameras would come in to film the race. And the amount of people that were in the stands. I was just like, wow. OK, I've got to get ready for this. I'm at the Olympics. This is the real deal.
And definitely when I came outside after the finals - the whole city just lights up because the venues are so close together. They have the Water Cube lighting up, changing different colors, the Bird's Nest with the flame. It was just really, really a great moment for me, looking around and just seeing how much effort they put into the Olympics. I was just so ready and so inspired by it.
CHIDEYA: Now, you are someone - based not just on the incident that you had nearly drowning back when you were five but on other levels - who really has dealt with the issue of African-Americans and swimming. Tell us a little bit about what's going on in terms of how many African-Americans do and don't swim and your perspective on that.
Mr. JONES: It really didn't hit me until I became a professional and I was given by USA Swimming the statistics on minorities in swimming. And I was just devastated to see that minorities, black and Hispanic, are three times more likely - almost three times more likely to drown than their counterparts. And you know, to think back at my story of when I was five, I could have easily been added to the number.
And it's kind of ironic that now I'm a gold medalist, and I'm in the position and in the seat to try to fix and try to help diversity in the sport, not only trying to do that but also trying to get more kids interested in water safety and getting them into the pool. I'm working on trying to get a tour together where I'll be going around, teaching some clinics and having swim meets for those that are already competitive just to get them aware and get them exposed to the life of swimming and USA Swimming.
And it was really great that after I got the gold medal, one of my sponsors, Bank of America, ended up giving me 10,000 dollars to jumpstart that movement, which was actually really great. I was completely shocked. I didn't expect it at all. But it's a great start.
CHIDEYA: So, you're going to be doing clinics. What ages of kids do you think that you're going to work with or want to work with?
Mr. JONES: Well, before the Olympics, my plan was to work with kids that were already exposed to the sport. So, I was open to any age and I still am open to any age. I think that with the gold medal, I think I can reach a wider range of participants, hopefully younger, that are thinking about choosing a sport. I'm definitely not trying to find the next Michael Phelps, but get kids to understand the importance of safety around the water and around the pool.
CHIDEYA: You actually swum with some of the people who have been on your Olympic team before, at the Pan-Pacific Championships. What's the teamwork aspect like of what you do?
Mr. JONES: One of the things that we have always felt is that we are a team from the beginning of the meet. It is a very individualized sport, but we put most of our focus into team, all of our efforts equal into a team, especially when you're on a relay. That's when really you really get that team atmosphere. And one of the things that Jason Lezak said to us right before - on Sunday before the four-by-100 relay is that we're swimming a 400-free relay, not a four-by-100 free relay. We're one team. We're a family. And that just gets you really pumped up, that you're a part of something so big, and it definitely helps that it says USA and I'm trying to support my country.
CHIDEYA: How does that play out, the issue of nationality? And what I mean by that is that I'm sure all the athletes have certain things in common. You're all there as top-notch competitors coming from around the world, but at the same time, you're also representing for your nation. So, is the atmosphere with athletes from other countries friendly, tense, rivalry-laden? What's it like?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. JONES: I think it just depends on the team itself. We are looked at as being very dominant in the swimming community. The U.S. is very, very competitive. Our trials, our Olympic trials, is actually faster than some of the other events that have taken place at the Olympics. So, we're kind of looked at as being very dominant, and whenever there's a team that's close to us in an event, like the French team in the four-by-100 relay, sometimes there's a little competitiveness that comes out.
But for the most part, we're still friends. I'm friends with two of the guys that are actually on the French team, and it's just some friendly rivalry. But you know, a lot of people take it too far and say, you know, they said they're going to do this, they said they're going to do that. And we understand that it's rivalry, so we don't really go back and say anything, but sometimes you have to deal with it, definitely.
CONAN: What about the issues of Tibet and Darfur? There have been a lot of conflicts about whether or not athletes should even talk about China and human rights, and there's been all this back and forth. What are the conversations like among athletes? Are athletes talking about those issues in general? And I don't mean even necessarily to the media and to the public, but amongst themselves.
Mr. JONES: Athletes are really not speaking out on it, really, just because we're not spokespeople for causes besides our own. We train, and I myself really just put my head's - my head in the dirt for the most part, because I'm training so hard, and I'm paying so much attention to my the lifestyle that I live, what I'm eating, making sure that I'm at practice on time. I mean, for the most part, athletes are here to compete, and we are so focused in on that, that that's all that we really have time to think about.
CHIDEYA: Again, Cullen, thanks so much. Cullen Jones is a swimmer for the U.S. team. He just won a gold medal as part of the U.S. men's four-by-100-meter freestyle relay, and he spoke to us from the Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
(Soundbite of music)
COX: Just ahead, we trace the evolution of Latin jazz with iconic conga player and accomplished bandleader, Poncho Sanchez. This is NPR News.
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