Lia Neal won bronze as part of the 4×100-meter free relay at the 2012 games in London and silver for the same relay this year in Rio.
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Holy moly! Simone Manuel made history by becoming the first African-American swimmer to win gold in an individual competition on August 11.
Manuel popped out of the pool holding back tears after she and Oleksiak finished in a dead heat after chasing down Australia’s Cate Campbell, who had set the world record last month. Born in June 2000, she is the first person to win an Olympic gold who has only been alive in this century, The Guardian noted.
Manuel said: “My first gold medal, at my first Olympics, is kind of a surprise to me”.
Simone Manuel became the first African American woman to earn a medal in an individual event in swimming – and it’s gold. But the Australian siblings couldn’t hang on.
But the 16-year-old lifelong resident of the Beach, who is slated to start Grade 11 at Monarch Park Collegiate in September, didn’t win just any old medal.
Phelps won by nearly two seconds at the Rio Games on Thursday to secure his 22nd Olympic gold medal.
“It’s been a long journey, and I’m super excited with where it has brought me”, she said.
Said Oleksiak: “I never thought I’d win a gold”. “I want to win just like everybody else”. He is on the team again in Rio.
Of course, the racial significance of her win is not lost on Manuel.
In the wake of police brutality that has strained race relations in the USA recently, Manuel hopes that her gold medal will bring some “hope and change” to the issues back home.
USA swimmer Simone Manuel made history Thursday night.
Manuel’s teammate Abbey Weitzeil finished seventh in 53.30.
It was meant to be a battle between Phelps and Lochte, with the former having won the 200m IM at every Games since 2004. I stood and chanted at the TV screen in our studio just on the other side of the Olympic Park from where we Canadians were all rocked on our heels. “This medal is for the people who come behind me and get into the sport”.
“I hope I can be an inspiration for others”.
“I want to finish my career how I want to so that’s what I’m doing”, Phelps said.
“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”, Cate said.
And Manuel hopes she can just be a swimmer and a champion without her race being a factor.
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She matriculated at Stanford that fall, and her freshman year, won two NCAA Division I titles (in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles) and set school records in those events.
