North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: From College Student to CEO
4/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Swimming
Editor's note: This story appeared in the May, 2007, issue of The Wolfpacker. Reprinted with permission of Comany Publishing Co.
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- It’s taken some getting used to, but Cullen Jones Inc. is now ready for business.
Jones, a former NC State swimmer who won an NCAA championship in the 50-yard freestyle last year, has become one of the biggest names in international swimming since turning professional last summer, thanks in part to his distinction as the most accomplished African-American swimmer in history.
In March, he was on the gold medal-winning 4x100 relay team at the 2007 FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. He also won a silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle, the event in which he hopes to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
Last summer at the Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, Canada, Jones made history when he became the first African-American swimmer to own part of a world record. Jones joined Michael Phelps, Jason Lezak and Neil Walk on the 4x100 relay. With Jones swimming a 47.96-second split, the team edged the old mark with a time of 3:12.46. The next day, Jones shattered the meet record in the 50-meter freestyle, posting a time of 21.84 seconds, which is the fourth-fastest time in the history of American swimming and was the best time posted in the world in 2006.
It was exactly the kind of performance NC State swimming coach Brooks Teal had long expected out of Jones.
Teal changed his superstar’s training regimen in his final year at NC State to include more work on the longer sprints, primarily because the U.S. Olympic team takes the top four swimmers in the 100-meter freestyle and only the top two in the 50-meter freestyle.
“We have worked something the past year and a half that has really worked well for me how to swim the 100-meter freestyle,” Jones said. “It has really paid off with some of the sets we do and some of the times I have posted.
“If you would have told me this time last year that I would have been part of a world record in the 4x100 relay, I would have laughed at you.”
Jones’ rookie success and his race have made him an up-and-coming figure in the national media, and he has been anointed as the “Tiger Woods of swimming.”
That’s not bad company to be in, of course, and Jones has embraced the comparisons, while he travels the country to promote diversity in swimming.
He even signed a lucrative endorsement agreement with Nike. It doesn’t come close to the ground-breaking deal Woods signed in 1996 or the $100 million extension he signed in 2000, but Jones’ deal is worth a reported $2 million, making him one of the world’s highest-paid swimmers.
Jones admits that he’s much more comfortable performing in the pool than he is branding himself as a corporate entity. He knows that his financial success is completely tied to his performance and that he must stay on top of his workouts and other responsibilities, like any good executive.
“I have gone from college student to CEO, and my job now is to make sure my company does the best that it can,” Jones said. “You have to be grown up to do this, because it is a full-time job.”
In retrospect, being a full-time college student and member of the NC State swim team was much easier. He had a set schedule and someone looking out for him at all times, telling him where to be, when to study, what to do. Now, he’s making all those decisions for himself.
“You don’t have a coach barking orders at you,” Jones said. “You can technically hang up your suit tomorrow. If you are on a university team, when you are on aid, they kind of own you a little bit. But after you have done your four years, it takes a whole other type of motivation to try to stay with that. I think that is what makes the job a lot harder. You are your own boss.
“One of the things my mother [Debra Jones] and my agent [Evan Morganstein] keep telling me is that I am Cullen Jones Inc. If I don’t show up for practice, I am not giving my company a good name. It’s a whole other type of responsibility. I don’t know how you can prepare someone for that, except living it and learning it, getting stuff right and getting stuff wrong.”
Jones is maturing. He is overseeing the construction of his first house. His girlfriend former University of Georgia star Maritza Correia, who was the first African-American to ever compete for the United States in the Olympics recently moved to Raleigh. He has made appearances in Colorado, New York, New Jersey and Texas to talk about his experiences in swimming.
“It’s pretty cool when I can fly in and go into a crowded auditorium in front of hundreds of kids that are screaming their heads off,” Jones said. “I am in awe, looking to see if Brad Pitt or someone just walked in. It’s a great feeling to talk to kids and have them come up to you and say, You are my inspiration.’
“Four years ago, no one knew who I was.”
But there is still much to learn and accomplish, especially while he continues training for an Olympic year in 2008.
“It’s still a work in progress,” said Wolfpack coach Brooks Teal, who is still serving as Jones’ personal sprint coach. “The learning curve is still high. He’s still learning how to put it all together, how to use the 24 hours in his day not only for Cullen Jones Inc. to be successful, but also how Cullen Jones the person needs to be successful.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, but I have seen a lot of growth.”
There’s no doubt that Jones has become one of the hottest new stars in international swimming, with the potential to get even better. Jonty Skinner, the former coach of USA Swimming’s Resident Team and the current director of USA Swimming’s National Team Technical Support, visited with Jones and Teal in February to check on Jones’ progress. Skinner coached NC State’s last Olympic swimmer, David Fox, in the two years leading up to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
“He is one of the top scientific minds in the United States as far as technique and training,” Teal said. “He helped us put together a plan for Beijing and took a lot of video of Cullen. He spent a day and a half with us, exchanging ideas about training and strength work.
“On his way home, he called me from the airport he was so excited about the potential for improvement for Cullen.”
Cullen Jones Inc. is clearly a good investment for growth.
Tim Peeler is the managing editor of www.GoPack.com and a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. You may contact him at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Reprinted by permission of The Wolfpacker and Coman Publishing Co.
