Cullen Jones is an athlete that has decided to help others. He was part of the gold-medal winning 4×100m freestyle relay team that won gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While Michael Phelps may have overshadowed Jones (and every other swimmer during that Olympics), Jones is one of those individuals that has become an inspiration not because he can swim, but because he chooses to serve.

Cullen Jones wasn’t always an excellent swimmer. He nearly drowned when he was five. He has used his status as a world-class swimmer to start the Make a Splash foundation, which teaches African-American children how to swim.

70 percent of African-American children either can’t swim or can only swim very little. I’m not sure why this is, but I do remember that in boot camp, there were quite a few of my African-American shipmates in my boot camp company that had to go to swimming lessons. Perhaps they have very little access to water; maybe they have less money for things like swimming lessons. Whatever the reason, I’m glad that we have one Olympic athlete that is taking time to help others.

In a world where there are so many people who reach a certain level and use their fame and popularity for themselves, it’s nice to see someone take some time out for others.

If you watched the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, you may remember the torchbearer who arrived in the stadium in a wheelchair, Rick Hansen. I didn’t know anything about him prior to the games, but it turns out, he has a pretty interesting story.

He became a paraplegic at the age of 15 when he ended up getting involved in a car accident. Hansen didn’t let that stop him. He earned a degree from the University of British Columbia, and became a paraplegic athlete, winning three gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze at the Paralympics in 1980 and 1984.

In 1985, he took a trek around the world in a wheelchair, visiting four different continents and travelling 40,000 miles over a period of 26 months. This “Man in Motion” tour raised more than $26 million for spinal cord research, and inspired John Parr’s song “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)”. That song reached number on on the Billboard Hot 100 in September. I remember the song, but I just thought it was a song at the time. Hansen’s journey will be the subject of a new movie, Heart of a Dragon, which is expected to be released later on this year. It looks pretty good:

Most people like to see other people overcome tragedy. Perhaps this is why we root for the underdog at times. Perhaps its because we all face difficult situations, and if someone else can overcome difficulties, then maybe we can too.

One of the most powerful stories of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics is the story of Joannie Rochette, a figure skater from Canada. Her mother died on Sunday, only two days before she was to skate in her short program. While nobody could blame her if she dropped out, Joannie decided to continue.

On Tuesday night, Joannie skated beautifully; in fact, she skated her way to third place. With tears in her eyes as she left the ice, you couldn’t help but to imagine how she must have felt.

She completed the figure skating competition on Thursday with the free skate, and again, skated wonderfully. She ended up winning the bronze medal.

You can’t help but to admire her. It’s the stuff of what Olympic Visa Commercials are made of.

Canada’s Brian McKeever is one such person. Born with Stargardt’s disease, McKeever has only 10% of his vision, and what he does sees is primarily out of his peripheral vision. Previously, he has competed in the Paralympic Games, where his brother is able to ski with him as a guide.

For 2010, McKeever will be joining the small group of athletes, like swimmer Natalie Du Toit, who have participated in both the Paralympics and able-bodied Olympics. He will be the first athlete to participate in both the Winter Olympics and a Winter Paralympics.

Many of the races that he will be participating in are mass-start events, where he will be able to see other people with his limited peripheral vision. The trick for this Canadian will be trying to stay with the fastest group, and then breaking out for the win at the end.

During the Olympics, you may have heard that Dawson, who took home a bronze medal in the moguls, was adopted from Korea. The fact that his adoption made his Olympic dream possible would have been an interesting enough story. The rest of the story is even more amazing.

The amazing part of the story started in 1981. A man named Kim Jae-su was shopping in a crowded Korean marketplace with his son, Kim Bong-seok. He lost his child. Although he made a valiant effort to find his son, looking through orphanages in the country, he never found him.

It turns out, Kim Bong-seok had been adopted by American parents, and was renamed… Toby Dawson. Friends of Kim Jae-su saw Dawson competing in the Olympics, and thought that there was a resemblance. Since his missing son was about the same age as Dawson, he decided to look into the matter. After the Olympics, many people tried to claim Dawson as their biological son, but DNA tests proved who the real father was.

After the Olympics, Dawson retired from skiing. In 2007, he was able to meet his real father, along with his biological younger brother. You can read more about the family reunion in various news stories.

One of the things that I like best about the Olympics is all the inspiring stories that surround it. That’s why I’d like to bring up an inspirational story regarding the Olympics on Saturdays. Often these people are the athletes, but there are some inspirational stories about people that aren’t athletes.

Nancy Kerrigan was in the news this week due to the fact that her father, Daniel Kerrigan, died this week, after allegedly being assaulted by her brother. While I have no clue why Mark Kerrigan turned out the way that he did… he spent several years in prison already, from May 2006 to just a couple of months ago. Perhaps it was part jealousy, perhaps it has something to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (he served in the military in Egypt, and has been diagnosed with the condition).

Nancy Kerrigan did not have her bronze medal from 1992, or her silver medal from 1994, handed to her on a platter. Her father worked hard to pay for skating expenses, sometimes working three jobs; he worked in a skating rink as an ice resurfacer in exchange for lessons. Daniel Kerrigan also mortgaged their house.

Nancy’s mother, Brenda, lost her vision when she was just a toddler, which most likely added to the family’s difficulties. While the family didn’t have a great deal of support, she did have quite a lot of support from her extended community. When she made the Albertville Olympics, her father’s coworkers banded together to help his family see her in France.

Most people remember Nancy Kerrigan as the recipient of an attack just seven weeks before the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Tanya Harding had conspired with her ex-husband and a friend, Shawn Eckardt, to hurt her prior to the Olympics. Nancy was hit with a collapsable baton by Eckardt, on the knee. She didn’t let that stop her, however. She was able to recover quickly, and resumed her training. Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal.

Tanya Harding went on to finish in eighth place (she never won an Olympic medal). Harding, meanwhile, has been involved with run-ins with the law and scandals ever since. The attacker, Shawn Eckardt, later changed his name to Brian Sean Griffith; he died of natural causes in 2007 at age 40.

The Kerrigan never asked for the publicity that came from the attacks and the recent death, but they have handled it like true Olympians.