Cullen Jones was this close to making his first individual medal a gold. Jones finished the 50m freestyle swim in 21.54, 0.2 secondss behind France’s Florent Manaudou who nabbed the gold medal. Jones had already earned a silver medal as a member of the U.S.’s 4×100 relay team. Fans from Jones’ hometown and high school gathered to cheer him on. Paul Milo of Newark Patch describes the scene back ‘home’ when Jones captured his first individual medal:
About 200 boys and their parents gathered at the Joseph Conlin Auditorium at St. Benedict’s Prep, the school Jones — who earned a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics — graduated from in 2002. He’s also won another silver in this Olympics.
The boys, mostly freshmen, were at the school for their overnight orientation, but their parents were asked to stay a little longer than planned in order to watch one of America’s most famous Gray Bees make a dash for the gold, said Glenn Cassidy, who coached Cullen in swimming when he was at the school.
“He is a great kid,” Cassidy said. “I mean, he’s always been a great kid. He always had a lot of talent, he’s always showed a lot of promise, and that hasn’t changed.”
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