Swimmer Simone Manuel is putting her historic Olympic win into perspective.
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Simone Manuel and Canada’s Penny Oleksiak receive joint gold medals in the 100-meter freestyle at Rio 2016.
Both Oleksiak and Manuel reached for the wall. The network was showing Russian gymnastics while Manuel was receiving her gold medal.
“To me, this win shows that black people are resilient and soar through adversity”, she wrote in an email.
The 20-year-old Manuel, in her first-ever Olympic games, tied with Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak in the 100-meter freestyle event.
“I got so many, like, ‘I’m the only black person on my team, too!’ ” Jones said. I work just as hard as anybody else. “We just didn’t know how long it would take, or in this case how quickly it would come”.
Before tonight, she’d already captured a silver in the 200 M butterfly, along anchoring a bronze medal race in both the 4×100 and 4×200 relays. Along with Oleksiak, she set an Olympic world record, with a time of 52.70 seconds.
The Black Line, a new documentary from Emmy-nominated producer Stan Jakubowicz, takes a deep dive into the historical exclusion of blacks in American swimming pools while also examining the rich culture of blacks and water in the Caribbean.
Manuel grew up in Texas, but made a decision to go west for college. In addition to helping the American team dominate the competition en route to their second gold in as many years, she also won the all-around individual gold. “It’s always something I want to do”.
“That helped keep the nerves off me”, Manuel said.
How can she be so good at 16?
USA Swimming described Manuel as a “powerful and gutsy no-limits swimmer”.
Jones is one of her inspirations, and a friend on the swimming circuit.
After emerging from the pool, NBC broadcasters couldn’t wait to her from Manuel herself.
She started swimming at a pool near her childhood home in Brooklyn, New York, where the other kids were mostly Chinese from her school located in Chinatown. And as of 2010, around 70 percent of African-Americans said they couldn’t swim, compared with some 40 percent of white folks.
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. My goal was just to get more experience, swim as fast as I can.
Manuel’s passion for the sport extends beyond the pool. “But I do hope that it kind of goes away”.
As the youngest sibling and the only girl, Manuel has spent her lifetime sharpening her competitive streak. “I felt like I was swimming every stroke with her”. “We are doing it in UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and hopefully Saudi Arabia will try to get there”.
“Lia and I have this very special relationship, and I wouldn’t be where I am right now without her”, said Manuel.
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Her brothers chose a different yet equally competitive sport: basketball.
