And 16-year-old Simone Manuel won gold in a thrilling-and rare-tie in the women’s 100-meter freestyle.
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Michael Phelps of the USA, center, jokes with fellow silver medal winners Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh, left, and South Africa’s Chad Le Clos, right, in the men’s 100-meter butterfly final on Friday.
Simone Manuel with an American flag after the women’s 100m freestyle final in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Olympic Aquatics Stadium. This is what seemed to particularly strike a chord with LeBron, wrote the caption – alongside photos of both Biles and Manuel biting their gold medals – “Simone + Simone = Gold!” And he couldn’t be more thrilled with how Manuel has handled what she termed the “weight” of the African-American community. “She deserves it as much as me”, said Oleksiak, the first athlete born in the 21st century to claim an Olympic gold in an individual event.
On a night when Michael Phelps won his unprecedented 22nd gold medal, it was two Americans named Simone who delivered the emotional stories of the day. It was for people that came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport. In the 1950s and 1960s, public pools were turned into private pools just to keep black people out of them.
“I hope I can be an inspiration for others. You might be pretty good at it”.
Simone will be attending the prestigious UCLA for higher education, but deferred her admission till the 2016 Rio Olympics conclude. 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. African-American children drown at a rate almost three times higher than white children, according to USA Swimming, as an estimated 70% of African-American children can not swim.
Jones, who didn’t make this year’s Olympic team, tweeted out his pride in Manuel, calling her achievement “amazing”.
The BBC argues that this is a throwback to the dark days of racial segregation. Fellow team U.S.A. Member Alexandra “Aly” Raisman came in second with 60.098.
With the win, she also gave the United States its first gold in the women’s 100 free since 1984 – when Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer tied. But she knows, too, that when Michael Phelps wins a race, he can just break it down.
“I’ve always said that I didn’t need a gold medal to have self-worth and I guess that that’s being put to the test at the moment”, said Cate.
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The teenager, who had already won a record three successive world all around titles before coming to Rio, bagged her first Olympic individual gold by a margin 2.100 points. “This win kind of helps bring hope and change to some of the issues that are going on in the world. It’s definitely been a long journey these past four years and I’m just so blessed to have the gold medal, I’m just so blessed”, a tearful Manuel told NBC News.
