Last time I talked about how he got to the World swim championships. Here is Cullen Jones swimming the 50 free in Rome. There are some fast folks out there!

Note: I follow Cullen Jones on twitter, and read this tweet a few days ago: “Well the 50 went at expected 19.4 since I’m not at my fighting weight… 21.2 in the fly today not expected let’s get it !”

That’s quite a bit quicker than the National record he set last summer! Talk about a rapidly advancing sport. Another note: I’m now reading that Cullen is in Seattle at the Nationals right now. More news on that later.

Last year at this time, this blog was downright obsessed with Cullen Jones.  He was my great black hope for the Summer Olympics.  In the end, he brought home a gold medal for the 4×100 meter free relay.  It was a very exciting race, won by eight one-hundredths of a second.

And though I was disappointed that that was the only race that Cullen had qualified for, and he swam the slowest lap of the race, he did contribute to a gold medal victory in Beijing.

What’s he up to these days?

He has an endorsement deal with Nike, for one.  He’s also on the speaking circuit.

But the coolest thing Cullen Jones is about is encouraging other young swimmers.  Especially young black swimmers.  The pool where he once swam as an isolated black swimmer has seen an influx of students since the 2008 Olympics.

Cullen is determined to turn the black drowning statistic around.  A recent USA swimming study found that 58 percent of black children can’t swim. But he is an excellent example of turning that statistic on its ear.  He almost drowned at 5.  Then his mother signed him up for swimming lessons.  He didn’t just quit at learning how to swim.  He took his sport through college, to the Olympics, and now to professional role model.

He is working on a swim documentary that includes his trip to Beijing.  Be on the lookout for more good things from Cullen Jones.

Let me know if you see any more black faces swimming at the Olympics!

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).

But we have a DVR, and I asked my husband to rewind it. And it was such a short clip that I almost missed it again! My husband had to explain to me that it was a high-light, not an actual race. I began a whole new round of ‘NBC was wrong for that!’

And I did what I do every day anyway. I checked nbcolympics.com, and I watched the whole race. So it was two heats. The first heat featured the two hyphenated dudes that swam the 100 M free–Wildman-Tobriner and Weber-Gale. Blah, blah, they came in 1 and 2. The second heat featured Cullen Jones and Gary Hall, jr., who was going for his 4th Olympics. Going into the race, Cullen Jones was the US record holder in the 50 M free, and Wildman-Tobriner, the world record holder.

Cullen Jones swam like I’ve come to expect him to swim. He starts slow, and then grows in speed until the last 15 M, when he races and reaches for the wall. Unlike his finish in the 100M, however, this time he didn’t take an extra stroke before touching the wall. He just reached and glided, and touched the wall first. His time of 21.71 ensured that he won his heat, and was second overall behind Wildman-Tobriner, whose time was 21.65.

The times to beat are Jones’ American record time, which he set earlier in the day at 21.59, and Wildman-Tobriner’s world record time, set last year at 21.28.

The finals are tonight. I can hardly wait.

He was slightly behind the pack at the turn, and did a slow burn towards the finish. There were few people pulling ahead the whole race. I noticed the swimmer in lane 7, (Ben Wildman-Tobriner), next to Jones, speeding up. The commentators mentioned that Wildman-Tobriner was challenging the leader. Then I watched Jones pull closer to the wall. “He won,” I shouted. Then I saw the names of number one and two in the water. Weber-Gale and Lezak. Jones came in third.

Then I heard the commentator say that Cullen Jones is a first time Olympian, and they do take the top 6. Phew!

Weber-Gale’s first place time was 47.92. Jason Lezak came in at 48.05, and Cullen Jones finished at 48.35. For perspective, the guy who came in 8th clocked a time of 48.93. It was a close race indeed.

The movie Pride told part of Jim Ellis’ story. Brielle White, one of his swimmers, may well tell another part. Pictured here with coaches Ellis (right) and Tracy Freeland, Brielle White graduated from the University of Virginia in 2006 and trains every day with the PDR (Philadelphia Department of Recreation) swim club, the Olympics her goal.

White says she started swimming like my friend Char–her mother threw her in the water when she was 3. By 6, she was swimming competitively with Jim Ellis’ team. Brielle White has been a nationally ranked backstroker since she was 9 years old.

The 5’10 swimmer is used to being the top swimmer in her club; Brielle White was a seven-time All-American at Virginia. She knows how hard she will have to work to make the Olympic team, and has made the shifts necessary to prepare.

Like Cullen Jones, Brielle Smith started out swimming on an inner city team, to go on to be the only black face on their college team. She knows a little something about sub-par facilities. Excellent coaching made up for what the pool lacked. For all the talk about minority swimmers’ lack of access and facilities, both of these swimmers have made it happen, and hope to inspire others to follow them.

This Olympic swim trial promises to be an interesting one.

btw, the first Black man to win Olympic gold in swimming was Anthony Ervin, who tied with Gary Hall jr. for first place in the 50 free at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Austrailia.

I had read about this swimmer in Splash magazine for a couple years. The first black woman on the US Olympic swim team, it said. I saw that last name and thought, hmm, black, huh?

Then I read her story. Maritza Correia was born in Puerto Rico, but moved to US at 7. She was diagnosed with scoliosis in Puerto Rico, and the Dr. recommended swimming to treat her curved spine. She started swimming in the US, and something just clicked.

So she stuck with it, swimming in the age group swim clubs, up through US swimming, and she swam on the University of Georgia swim team. She tried out for the Olympic team in 2000. She was at the top of her game, ready to represent. Maritza, nicknamed Ritz could have swum for her native Puerto Rico, but preferred the challenge of making the US team.

Then she didn’t make the team. Heartbroken, Ritz returned to college, where she had a decision to make. Should she forget about her Olympic dream, or train harder and go for it? After being consoled by her coach and University of Georgia teammates, Ritz decided to go for it!

She trained her butt off. In 2001, Ritz won a gold medal in the 800m freestyle and two bronze medals in the medley and 400m freestyle relay as a member of the U.S. Team at the 2001 World Championship celebrated in Japan. She won both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle in the 2002 NCAA championships, becoming the first African-American woman to win an NCAA championship. In both events, Ritz set American records, bettering the marks of two Olympic gold medalists (Amy Van Dyken and Jenny Thompson) in the process. She also earned seven All-American certificates and she was awarded the Commissioner’s Cup as the high point scorer in the SEC Championships.
In 2003, Correia earned a gold medal swimming on prelim 400 m free relay at the World Championships.

Ritz went all out in the 2004 Olympic trials. She thought if she didn’t make this team, it may be her last shot at it. She went for it. .. and made the team! She had the fourth fastest time in the 100 M free, good enough to represent the USA. Her race in the 2004 Olympics was like the first event, so she missed the opening ceremony. The US relay team won the silver medal in the 4×100 relay. So all her hard work paid off with a silver medal. At the Olympic Games in Athens, Correia was on the silver-medal-winning 400-meter relay team, despite not making the cut as one of the four who swam in the final medal race. It was a disappointing finish to her Olympic experience, but she appreciated every moment nonetheless.

She was young, 22, and came home to finish college, and get ready for another shot at Olympic glory. I was looking forward to finally watching her swim at this year’s Olympics.

But Ritz retired from swimming in April. She cited shoulder injuries as the problem, and she was grateful for the time off from swimming to be able to help take care of her father before he recently passed away.

Ironically, she may be more visible post retirement as a Nike spokesman, a role model to encourage minority children to swim, and she’s featured in Parting the Waters, a swimming documentary.