The world record they broke was only one day old, having been set by Australia’s Cate Campbell in the semifinals.
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“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 after a dead-heat in the 100 metres freestyle final resulted in two golds being awarded.
“Its been completely unreal for me”, she said.
“I am glad I can be an inspiration to others and help diversify the sport”. Ms. Manuel later said her win was extra special in light of ongoing race issues in the U.S., USA Today reported.
Simone’s victory marks an important milestone.
Seems like the media has earned that a gold medal in “terrible sexist coverage”. It would be another four years before a black woman made it, in Athens in 2004, when Maritza Correia joined the team.
Manuel’s teammate and fellow gold medalist took to Twitter to express her excitement after the historic victory.
Jeff Wiltse, the author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America spoke to NPR a number of years ago about the issue. “Nor has building pools for black areas been a priority”. Access to pools has always been a challenge as African-Americans were often officially denied entrance to pools during segregation, then unofficially excluded in other ways afterward. While her brothers eventually switched their focus to basketball, she kept swimming, eventually growing more serious about the sport as she reached high school. But her path to get here has been a long one.
Both Oleksiak and American Simone Manuel were deemed to have slapped the wall at the exact same moment in an Olympic record time of 52.70 seconds, marking the first gold medal tie in a swimming event since Sydney 2000 when gold was shared by Americans Gary Hall Jr. and Anthony Ervin in the 50-metre free.
Even as she celebrated her triumph, she also acknowledged the recent shootings of black men by police officers in the US.
Manuel commented on police brutality, calling her win significant given the political climate in the US, where it is every other day that the public hears about police killing civilians.”It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality”, Manuel told reporters, according to USA Today.
In Chesterfield County, coaches at Swim RVA say they already see an impact and a new glimmer of hope in the eyes of their young athletes. I hope that I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming.
“That’s not true. I work just as hard as everybody else and I love the sport”.
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The story also now includes an editor’s note, stating: “The original headline on this story was insensitive and has been updated to acknowledge the historic gold medal wins by both Simone Manuel and Michael Phelps”.
