Manuel, who won a silver medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay Sunday night, was scheduled to swim in the semifinals of the 50 freestyle Friday night. Also in the field was Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who had already set a world record at these Olympics.
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“I opened the door to the room, and she got up and gave me a hug and said, ‘I wasn’t going to fall asleep until I gave you a hug, ‘ and that really meant a lot to me”, said Manuel, who gave the USA a gold medal in the event for the first time since 1984.
“I was really upset after my race, just with myself”.
The 20-year-old swimmer said she did not expect to win the gold individually.
Clawing her way back into the race, Manuel found new opposition in Canada’s Penny Oleksiak, who also ramped it up in the second length. I’m just so blessed to have a gold medal, I’m just so blessed.
“To me, this win shows that black people are resilient and soar through adversity”, she wrote in an email.
“Even though I get the question a lot and I’m getting exhausted of it, other people who haven’t gotten the chance to speak to Simone or me, they’re all the more excited, so it’s fine”.
“I think that this win kind of helps bring hope and change to some of the issues that are going on”. “I went out there and swam as fast as I could, and my color just comes with the territory”.
Her win meant Simone Manuel will now be written into history as the first black female swimmer to win Olympic gold. That race was the second, and only other time, there has been a tie in an Olympic swimming event. “She (Manuel) deserves it as much as me”. She helped the United States women’s team to second in the 4x100m freestyle race.
Manuel grew up in Texas, but chose to go west for college. She’s also swimming in the 50 free. “They might be pretty good at it”. I hope that I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming.
USA Swimming described Manuel as a “powerful and gutsy no-limits swimmer”. This was the first Olympics for the twenty-year-old Manuel.
She told CNN in March that she at times struggled with being African-American in a sport typically dominated by white athletes. “I want to be an inspiration to them that they can do it”, she said. In just her freshman year she broke the American and NCAA Records in the 100-yard freestyle.
Manuel’s passion for the sport extends beyond the pool.
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“I haven’t gotten best times in a while in long course”, she said, differentiating from the distance she swims in college.
