INDIANAPOLIS -- An Olympic gold medalist who broke color barriers in professional swimming said he's shocked by reports that a group of minority children were asked to leave a private swimming pool in a predominantly white Philadelphia suburb.

Cullen Jones, who is competing in the U.S. National Championships at the Indiana University Natatorium in downtown Indianapolis this week, told 6News' Sarah Cornell that he remembers facing discrimination while growing up.

"It was more parents coming up to me. It was never kids, it was more parents," he said. "They would say I should be playing basketball, but that's just because I was beating all their kids."

Organizers of a day camp in northeast Philadelphia claim that members of The Valley Club of Huntingdon reacted to 65 visiting children by pulling other kids out of the water and making racial comments.

The day camp was asked not to return, although the group had paid $2,000 to swim at the facility once a week throughout the summer.

The club denied discrimination, but said it was simply overcrowded.

Jones, who is the first African-American to hold or share a world record, volunteers giving swimming lessons to minority children. He said the Philadelphia situation has made it difficult to concentrate in Indianapolis.

"I'm trying to focus on the 50 (meter free style), and at the same time, I'm just really shocked that at this day and time we're still dealing with this kind of stuff," he said.

Jones finished second in the 50 meter free style.

Pennsylvania officials are investigating the pool club.