Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones almost drowned as a kid. Now, he’s a swim lesson advocate.

Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones always loved the water, the type of kid who played in the tub until he was pruney — but he wasn’t always a swimming pro. In fact, a near-drowning experience as a child is what shaped him into the swimmer and swim lesson advocate he is today.

At 5 years old, he got stuck underwater after going down a ride at a water park with his parents. 

“TV and theater, they always dramatize when someone drowns or nearly drowns — ‘help, help, help!’ — And what we learned is that that’s not usually the case. It’s usually silent, especially when it comes to young people. They go underwater, and then, unfortunately, you never hear from them again. And the same thing almost happened to me,” he told CBS News. “I hadn’t had swim lessons (and) didn’t know what to do.”

After being underwater for almost 40 seconds, young Jones had to be resuscitated by a lifeguard.

“I was traumatized. I didn’t realize it that day … but the next time I was by a pool, my mom noticed that I was a little more timid, and it took five different teachers before I started feeling comfortable to actually start putting my face underwater, floating and starting to actually do the forward progression in the water,” he said. 

Fast forward to the 2008 Olympics, where Jones won a gold medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, becoming the first African American to hold a world record in swimming. In 2012, he brought home even more swimming medals. 

Now, an ambassador with pool supplies retailer Leslie’s, Jones works to make sure other young people don’t experience what he did as a kid. 

“You need to teach your children to swim,” he said. “It is not OK just to have them in the shallow end … The best thing for us to do is to give them the tools to be successful around the water. And the best way to do that is to give them proper swim lessons. It is not just a great sport … but it’s also a life skill, and we want to make sure that all parents and guardians understand that.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blame around 4,000 deaths each year on accidental drowning. Earlier this year, the health agency reported a nationwide surge in these deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting rates were disproportionately worse for Black people. 

Drowning is also the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 and the second leading cause of unintentional death for children in the 5 to 14 age group, according to the CDC.

“It’s really disheartening to see the effects that COVID has had, especially on the U.S. population around drowning,” Jones said, but adds there are ways to stay safe. 

Here are his top tips:

Pool safety tips

Learn to swim: Learning to swim benefits both kids and adults, Jones said.

“If there is one parent in the family that knows how to swim, there’s an 88% chance that that child will learn to swim. And not to mention, you give that child an 88% more of a chance to be safer around the water,” he said. “I don’t care how old you are, how young you are, the pool is for you. Please come out. Go be safer around the water. It doesn’t matter your age. It’s a life skill we need to prioritize at any age.”

Red Cross swimming courses are one of many programs that teach children to swim across the U.S.

But Jones recognizes there are “a lot of families out there that can’t afford to have formal swim lessons,” noting Leslie’s has teamed up with the Boys and Girls Club and Red Cross to raise money to help other people learn to swim. The fundraising efforts continue through Oct. 31 both online and in stores across the country. 

Check for clean water: Just because it’s clear and blue, does not mean it’s clean, Jones said.

“Take it from someone who spends a lot of time in water, that is not the case. You want to make sure that your pool water is safe and healthy,” he said.

Keep the area safe: With so many distractions today, Jones said to “make sure that you’re securing the area if you have a pool, especially at home.”

Many children who drowned at home did so during times they were not expected to be in the water, according to the American Red Cross. In some cases, children were out of sight for less than five minutes and in the care of one or both parents when they slipped into the pool and drowned, the agency said.

Jones suggests Coast Guard-approved floatation devices, pool covers and alarms — adding his 5-year-old son has already put his own safety measures to the test. 

“This kid will figure out how to get outside — he loves the water that much. But I can turn my head at any moment, so it’s important for me to have my gate up. It’s important for me to have that alarm. Trust me, I’ll be honest, it saved me a couple of times where I’ve turned around and he was already out the back door.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.