Cullen Jones is an American swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. As part of the American team, he holds the world record in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay and is the first African American to achieve this accomplishment. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he won silver medals in the 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay and the 50-meter freestyle, as well as the gold in the 4 x 100-metre medley.
- Primary School: Sacred Heart, Newark, NJ
- High School: Saint Benedict’s Prep, Newark, NJ
- University: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
- In school I excelled at: English and Biology
- In school I struggled with: Math. It did not come to me as easily as other subjects.
- After school you could find me: Swimming and hanging out with my friends, who usually would swim alongside me.
- Troublemaker or Teacher's Pet? I would say I was in the middle. I wasn’t a teacher's pet, but I wasn’t precisely a troublemaker. I was a bit of a class clown, but I knew how to be funny and not get in trouble!
- You'd be surprised to learn that in school I... was not only a swimmer, but I was a basketball player and on the debate team.
- In high school people thought I would grow up to be a: teacher or a lawyer.
- Favorite teacher/professor and why: Marc Onion! You never forget your favorite teacher. He was my favorite because he was hard on me, always called on me, and at the time, I hated it, but he was pushing me. He’s a big reason I majored in English in college.
- Favorite book: Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- First job: as a lifeguard and teaching kids to swim
- If I could do any job, it would be: to continue to be a professional athlete. There is no feeling like representing your country.
- The course I'd most like to take today: would be in business. In my 13 years as a professional athlete, I have learned so much.
- An education goal: I want to get my MBA at some point.
- If I could have any celebrity as a teacher, I’d pick: Barack Obama, the way he stays calm even in trying times is something I would like to learn. He is extremely intelligent and an idol of mine.
- Today I learn the most from: books and if I’m in a rush, Audible!
- Do you learn best by reading, listening or doing? I learn best by doing both, I usually will buy both the book and the Audible. It keeps me going by listening with a crazy 3-year-old running around but I like to always be able to come back to the book and highlight or underline keep things I learned. I enjoy books where I learn something I didn’t know.
- Best piece of career advice I ever received: “to enjoy/appreciate the journey.” We are a society who loves instant gratification. The best gratification is the hard-fought journey, not the easy one.”
- My personal superpower is: the ability to drown out the noise around me. It’s great when you're at a coffee shop trying to get work done or if you’re behind the blocks at the Olympics!