“I can’t believe the first African American woman to win the Olympics it’s so cool I love swimming, that’s my favorite sport”, said Jesseni Reid of Springfield. “It’s for some of the African-Americans that have came before me and have been inspirations and mentors to me”.
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Even as she celebrated her triumph, she also acknowledged the recent shootings of black men by police officers in the US.
Manuel said: “It means a lot to me, especially what’s going on in the world today and some of the issues with police brutality”.
It was the second time the women’s 100m freestyle had ended in such a fashion – the 1984 Los Angeles Games saw a tie between Americans Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer in 55.92 sec. While he is likely taking in plenty of hoops, he has spent time watching other events as well.
At her news conference after her victory, Manuel acknowledged the history she made.
That troubling history has led to an oft-cited statistic from USA Swimming, based on studies conducted by their researchers and others from the University of Memphis, that some 70 percent of black people can’t swim. Manuel was fighting for a medal, for sure, but a gold seemed unlikely.
“She gets it. She gets it”, said Kennedy. At Stanford, she is a two-time individual NCAA champion: winning the 50- and 100-yard freestyle in 2015. She and three of her Team USA teammates (Abbey Weitzeil, Dana Volmer, and Katie Ledecky) took home Olympic silver in the 4×100 m freestyle relay on August 6th.
“I didn’t have an answer for it immediately, and I said, ‘That’s a good question”. But she enjoyed it so much, she immersed herself fully by age 9.
Manuel and her parents have had many conversations about what her swimming can and will mean in terms of the African-American community at large. “So they automatically put the idea in their heads that “since I don’t know how to swim, you’re not going to know how to swim because I don’t feel comfortable with you being in the water”. Sharron wanted them all to be able to hang out at the pool in the hot Houston summers without worrying about their safety. “I want to get to the Olympics and I want to win a gold medal – like, that’s one of my aspirations in life”.
Manuel, though, shared it with a wider audience – all young African-American girls.
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“I didn’t know this”, Manuel said Friday of the celebrity tweets, “but [swimmer] Lia Neal sent me a screen shot of it [Friday] morning, so I think that’s pretty cool”.
