Swimming: Cullen Jones, United States

Cullen Jones has gone global.

In the preliminaries of the 4x100 freestyle relay on Sunday, Jones paced the U.S. to a world-record time. Of America’s four swimmers in the event, Jones swam the fastest time in his first appearance at the Olympics.

His career-best time of 47.61 seconds pushed the U.S. team to a world record of 3:12.23.

The Americans improved upon their record in the final, winning the gold medal in 3:08.24.

Jones swam one of the middle legs in the final, helping the U.S. defeat France. The top five teams beat the record the Americans set in the preliminaries.

One of the few African-American swimmers to ever make the U.S. Olympic team, Jones has now been part of the last three relay teams that have held the 4x100 world record. He was also part of a U.S. group that set the record in Canada in 2006.

Jones will not be competing in any individual races.

Charlotte Observer and Associated Press