Simone Manuel deserves nothing less.
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Phelps, the top qualifier, will be seeking his fourth straight 200-meter IM Olympic title, swimming Thursday evening next to longtime rival and USA teammate Ryan Lochte.
United States’ Simone Manuel, left, and Canada’s Penny Oleksiak celebrate winning joint gold and setting a new Olympic record in the women’s 100-meter freestyle during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Smith, the Pan Am Games gold medalist in this event a year ago, qualified eighth in yesterday’s semi-final, in a time of two minutes, 22.87 seconds.
She said the medal is also for those who believe they can’t do it, being a black swimmer. Footage of the awards ceremony showed Manuel smiling, hugging her fellow champ – and singing along to the national anthem, a tear slowly running down her face.
But there is a particular, fraught history that follows black Americans and swimming, which Manuel may have been alluding to in her comments.
But in this case, two swimmers who had matched each other stroke for stroke – Simone Manuel of the USA and Penny Oleksiak of Canada – came into the wall at the same instant.
Check out the list of other black athletes to make history at the Olympics.
“This medal is not just for me, it’s for some of the African-Americans that have come before me and have been inspirations and mentors to me”, she said. He has won three Olympic medals (two silver and one gold) and holds the American record in the 50-meter freestyle. “And that’s not true”. Through Friday morning, all of Canadians who have won medals (gold, two silvers, five bronzes) have been women.
“Using the word prodigy to describe her”, he says: “That is very accurate to what she is”. “This win hopefully brings hope and change to some of the issues that are going on”. “I was super excited and shocked because it was something that we had talked about during the beginning of the year”. Berkeley teammate Jacob Pebley finished in fifth place. But I want to be the best and if I have to work with what I have, I will work with it and maybe I will get better.
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In the third dead heat in the pool, Canada’s Oleksiak became the first individual Olympic champion born since the year 2000 – in any sport. Like the Chicago Tribune, which was criticized for tweeting “wife of a Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics” – without even mentioning the woman’s name or event. “Ryan Lochte is going to beat Michael Phelps”, the broadcasters announced, according to Sports Illustrated. In the final numbers that first Thursday of the last Summer Olympics hit a 36-year high with 36.8 million viewers.
