Cullen Jones wins gold: Suck on that, Frenchie!

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N.C State alum Cullen Jones and his mates in the pool pulled off a tremendous upset Sunday night in Beijing, besting the French in the 400 M Freestyle Relay to win gold.

Jones becomes the second black swimmer ever to win a gold medal in Olympic history (Anthony Nestor of Surinam was the first), the first black American and the first to hold or share a world record.

By sheer luck I happened to watch the race unfold live. Amazing. The final leg swam by Lezak was nothing short of incredible. At the final turn with just 50m to go, it looked like the French were going to take it in a walk. But Lezak kept churning as the Frenchman faded in the final 25m. I found myself cheering out loud when we claimed first place.

It was a dramatic win, and one that keeps Michael Phelps' hopes for 8 gold medals alive. But perhaps more importantly, it served notice to the French swimmers who had talked a great deal of smack leading up to the event:

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Alain Bernard: "The Americans? We will smash them."

Le Scoreboaurde, le biatches!

video HT: Awful Announcing, via 850 The Buzz's blog

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Cullen Jones is China-bound

GoPack.com article

State's strong tradition of swimmers continues on in Cullen Jones, who's earned his spot on the U.S. Olympic swimming team with a strong performance in the 4x100m relay.

His 50m preliminary time in Omaha set a new American record, but in the finals he failed to make the 50m free roster, finishing third by 16/100s of a second. Nevertheless, he's on his way to Beijing.

Not bad for a guy who nearly drowned at a waterpark at age 5.

There's some history at stake for Jones, as well. If he were to win gold, he would be the first black American swimmer to do so.

Jones is State's second swimming Olympian in 12 years. David Fox won gold in Atlanta in 1996 as part of the 4x100m relay sqaud. It can be argued that men's swimming has been the strongest men's sport at State, historically. The Wolfpack has won 24 ACC titles in its history, seven more than UNC's 17. It was Carolina grad Willis Casey, somewhat ironically, that led the Pack to 12 straight titles from 1966 to 1982. Casey, of course, went on to become one of the most prominent athletic directors in State's history.

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