Manuel made those comments to The Huffington Post in May, months before she made history as the first African-American woman to win an individual medal at the Olympic Games – gold, no less.
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“When you see someone who looks like you achieve something at that level it lets you know right away that I can”, Jefferson said. But she also represents a dream yet unfulfilled for millions of Americans, and millions more around the world, who see her and see hope.
She finished 15th at the 2008 Beijing Games and fifth in London in 2012, developing her skills with the help of her coach and father, Michael, who won silver in the shot put at the 1984 Los Angeles games.
Manuel said to BBC News that her win was for the “African-Americans who have been before me and been inspirations”, and “the people who come behind me and get into the sport”.
Four years later at Athens, Maritza Correia became the first female medal victor, collecting a relay silver. At 20 years old, Manuel is already a United States Summer Olympic legend. “She didn’t have to say much after that, because her staying up said enough in itself”.
Ultimately, the successes of Manuel, Biles and other minority Olympians bear significance stretching well beyond the scope of sports.
Kennedy said nationally, 70 percent of African American children don’t learn how to swim, but he expects that will change after Rio. Black children drown at a rate almost three times higher than their white peers.
Friday afternoon Prince took his 3-year-old daughter for a swim at the MacGregor Pool on Houston’s southeast side. “She’s just ready to swim.'” Manuel went on to swim with the First Colony Swim Team in Sugar Land and now swims for Stanford University.
Cullen Jones, an Olympic gold medalist in swimming, tweeted, “I am so proud of Simone Manuel”.
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Manuel expressed her hope that America can get to a point where it’s not notable that she’s a world champion black swimmer. “So they automatically put the idea in their heads that “since I don’t know how to swim, you’re not going to know how to swim because I don’t feel comfortable with you being in the water”.
