“I really want to go and be surprised and shocked that people actually know who I am,” Jones said. “I mean, people love swimming there. I’m just excited to see how the people are and see how the fans are towards the U.S., even if it isn’t welcoming.”

Jones will swim at the 2007 FINA World Championships beginning later this week in Melbourne, Australia. While Jones has set goals for the world championship meet and training this year—like breaking the world record in the 50 meter freestyle—he’s looking beyond the meet and the pool, as well.

“I really want to make a big effort, especially after Worlds, to reach out to African-American and Latin kids,” Jones said. “I just think I have the time to go out and talk to kids and share my story.”

Jones became the first African-American world record holder last summer at the 2006 Pan-Pacific Championships when he teamed up with Michael Phelps, Jason Lezak and Neil Walker to set the record in the 400m freestyle relay. 

“Someone wrote online not too long ago that it’s the ‘feel good’ message and that it’s not going to do much, because you can’t expect one kid from the African-American race to just go out and become this amazing swimmer. Well, they said that about Jackie Robinson, they said that about Tiger (Woods), and they said that about (Michael) Jordan. You never know,” Jones said.

Jones, a former North Carolina State University swimmer and a native of New Jersey, became a professional swimmer in 2006 when he signed a seven-year, $2 million contract with Nike. The deal gives him the opportunity to speak to minority groups about what’s he’s accomplished and the importance of swimming in his life, he said.

“The kids run up all the time, and they are just amazed at what I’ve been doing and where I came from,” Jones said. “A lot of times when you hear about swimmers, especially when it comes to African-American and Latin kids, they don’t see a black swimmer. That’s rare.”

Swimming well at World Championships is important to Jones because it will allow him to gain more recognition and expose more minority children to swimming and grow the sport, but it’s not the most important part of swimming, he said.

“I always want to have fun with swimming. When I started off swimming, it was never for time, it was never to beat someone else’s son. It was just, I was having a good time,” he said.

“Always have fun with swimming, because the reason that we started off swimming was because we thought it was a great time.”

When Jones went to college, swimming wasn’t fun anymore, he said, and it wasn’t until he learned to enjoy the sport again that he began swimming faster.

“It was just business. Now that it isn’t business, I’m actually having fun with swimming,” Jones said. “That’s when I started to drop time and that’s when I started to swim well--when I realized that there is life after this race, but I’m going to give it my everything,  because this is fun.”

Jones’ coach Brooks Teal said he agrees with Jones’ philosophy. His work ethic and performance have increased dramatically since he learned to have fun again, Teal said in a teleconference about the World Championship meet.

“I can tell he’s getting more and more excited about World Championships because he’s working harder everyday,” Teal said. “Two or three times in the past two weeks he’s asked me if we can do something a little harder. He let me know I wasn’t challenging him enough. I’d say training’s going very well and I’m continuing to see him step up (to) higher and higher levels.”

Training harder is what it’s all about, Jones said. The faster he swims, the more people will notice.

“I feel like if my story goes out, and as long as there are four kids in the group of 40 that actually hear what I’m saying, and take that home and say ‘Mom, Dad, I want to swim. I want to do something different,’ then I feel like I’ve done my job. I feel like I’ve passed the torch.”