You can't be what you don't know
By Janet Morrison on August 14, 2008
Everyone's looking at Michael Phelps these days.
I admit, he amazes me as well. (good grief!... he doesn't even breathe hard after breaking world record times in swimming!) However, I have just become even more impressed with Cullen Jones. Jones helped the USA team win the 4x100 Freestyle relay.
That's not why he impresses me. Cullen Jones impresses me because he recognizes that his gold medal was only an opportunity for him to open doors for others:
"I've gone to a driving range before and hit golf balls because I saw Tiger Woods doing it on TV," Jones said. "I want more minority kids to go to a swimming pool and try to swim because of me. I know I'm nowhere near Tiger Woods. But I want to make a difference. I want kids to say, 'Look a black swimmer. And he's got a gold medal!' And I want them to get in the water because of it," Cullen Jones mentioned in an article in kansascity.com.The article went on to explain, "Jones is mostly concerned not that minority children learn to swim fast, but that they learn to swim, period." USA Swimming did a study that found that 58 percent of black children could not swim, compared to 31 percent of whites. Cullen Jones recognizes he has a chance to change that.
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Janet Morrison, Ed.D., serves as director of
education for 