“Coming into my first Olympics, I didn’t think I was going to be getting a gold medal individually. I’m just so blessed”. According to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, in the United States, a black 11-year-old is 10 times as likely to drown in a swimming pool as a white 11-year-old.
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Meanwhile, Michael Phelps became the first swimmer ever to win the same event – 200m individual medley – at four straight Olympics.
The Mercury-News was blasted on Twitter for the headline, which not only left out Manuel’s name while confusingly promoting Michael Phelps-but also referred to her by her race only. And I’m just so blessed to have a gold medal. “It’s for a whole bunch of people that came before me and have been an inspiration to me”. She even mentioned “some of the issues with police brutality”. “I mean, the gold medal wasn’t just for me; it was for people that came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport”.
Another American named Simone, is dominating in her sport. They had all watched the race from the second-last row, “U”, and held their breath with the rest of the crowd as Penny stretched for the wall.
Manuel grew up in Texas, but made a decision to go west for college. “She’s a huge part of my success”.
“It’s been a long journey and I’m super excited with where it has brought me”, she said.
And she’s in good company.
And her supporters have been active on Twitter, congratulating Manuel on her groundbreaking talent, including her Rio roommate and fellow gold medal victor Katie Ledecky.
USA Swimming described Manuel as a “powerful and gutsy no-limits swimmer”. “We got back to the pit and the other girls were wide-eyed and like, ‘Holy s-t, we’re going to do something fantastic here!’ They all lifted because of what that one person did”.
Manuel was determined to make years of hard work, sacrifice and determination pay off for her. But she enjoyed it so much, she immersed herself fully by age 9. “It’s for all the people who come after me who believe they can’t do it”.
During her senior year in high school, she rose to prominence in the swim community when she broke the national record for her age group on her 17th birthday. When racial integration finally became a mandate, many areas responded by closing public pools so they didn’t have to mix, creating a bigger social divide that transcended race, because if you didn’t have the money to go to a country club or private pool, you either didn’t learn to swim or you tried to learn from an untrained friend or family member in rivers, lakes and even ponds. In the summer of 2014 Manuel conducted a swim clinic at the pool. She also served on USA Swimming’s diversity and inclusion committee, which, she told CNN, helped her overcome some of the loneliness she felt at being one of the few minorities in the sport. I hope that I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming. During the night’s 100m freestyle event, she began slow and wasn’t one of the top three swimmers leading at the final turn.
“I was pretty shocked”, she tells The New York Times.
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That’s the history, and it undoubtedly contributed to where we are today, to this troubling acceptance that swimming – an important life skill – isn’t for everybody.
