Dig, I was just as excited as the rest of the country, nee the world–about Michael Phelps and his success. I mean, oh my goodness–how cool is that to set and reach big hairy audacious goals like Phelps did?

But I also found myself tripping, gawking and carrying on over every black or perceived to be black arm I saw in that Olympic pool.

Like the guy who won gold in the 1500 M free, pictured above. His name is Ou Mellouli, and he’s from Tunisia. My daughter argued with me as to whether or not this guy is black. We’ll he’s North African, ok? And I read that he trains with the American swim club the Trojans.

One night, I swear I saw some black arms come in second or third (or fourth?) of some heat of some stroke. Great details, I know, and since I can’t find my notes on the event, I checked online.

I found Malick Fall, from Senegal, who finished fourth in the third heat of the 100M breast stroke.

I also found a few others from African nations that looked more like that guy from Tunisia than the dude from Senegal, if you know what i mean. They likely didn’t get televised, but there were swimmers of color representing Madagascar, Algeria, and Mauritius, an island off the southeastern coast of Africa.

That doesn’t include several swimmers from Brazil and other South American nations.

I’m hoping the US produces more folks like Cullen Jones in time for the next Olympics. This trolling through the foreign archives is exhausting.

(edited to add: 50 M freestyle gold medalist from Athens, Malia Metella of France is also black. She came in 8th at the semi-finals this year).