{"id":150993,"date":"2015-08-20T11:48:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T18:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=150993"},"modified":"2015-08-20T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T20:21:15","slug":"cullen-jones-make-a-splash-initiative-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/cullen-jones-make-a-splash-initiative-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Cullen Jones Proud To Be a Part of Make a Splash Initiative (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

To most American swimmers, Cullen Jones<\/strong> will be remembered as one of the four heroes that brought home gold in the men’s 400 freestyle relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. However, to a select group of young swimmers, Jones will be remembered as a hero who taught them how to swim.<\/p>\n

As a part of NBC’s “Race for Gold” series, Jones discussed his long journey to obtaining that gold medal, how he almost drowned as a child and how he is working to prevent this from happening to America’s youth. He said that even though he was extremely proud of his Olympic gold, he was hit hard after a friend showed him the drowning rate of African-Americans. After learning that African-Americans were three times more likely to drown than any other ethnic group, Jones knew he needed to do more in the sport.<\/p>\n