At least that is what I overheard yesterday. That Black Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones was not worthy to be put on the US 4 X 100 freestyle relay team that won the gold medal. That his inclusion on the team was a form of affirmative action...or a "ghetto boy rules the pool" feel good story.
And as proof of this they pointed to his leg (portion) in the race as being the slowest and that he actually gave up the lead when he hit the pool.
When I heard this I just had to stand up for the brother, but I said hey I better do some research and find out all the details. For the sake of this article I'll make it short and sweet. And tell you why Cullen had every right to be on that relay team and get the gold medal.
Let's first put aside the feel good story of Cullens life. That as a child he nearly drowned and coughed up a pint of water. Let's forget about his heart in working with inner city youth and his mantra of getting more African Americans involved in swimming. He has been relentless in this with every interview. With the gold medal, I think he has made his point, but let's just look at these facts.
1. A year ago Cullen was part of the U.S. relay team that won the World Championships and set a world record back then.
2. In the "individual freestyle competition" each country is only allowed to enter two swimmers. Cullen got bumped out, because he placed third at the US trials by 0.16 Third best of all our US freestyle swimmers.
3. Earlier in the day at the Olympic preliminaries, Cullen Jones was again part of a world record team. Only one of that team would be on the finals team.
4. Of that relay team Culllen had the fastest split (leg) of the race.
5. In the gold medal race Cullen may have had the slowest leg, but let us also remember, no one else on the gold medal team had swam earlier that day. Cullen raced freestyle twice that day.
So please give this brother his due as the best of the best and an inspiration to all.