Eleven-year-old ROC swimmer Katie Ford trains four times a week.
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This is the second medal Manuel has won in Rio; she won silver as part of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay team. Manuel was fighting for a medal, for sure, but a gold seemed unlikely.
Tears rolled down each of Manuel’s cheeks as she sang along to the “Star-Spangled Banner”.
Manuel said she hoped her first gold would bring change.
Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first American to compete in the Olympics with a hijab, is also African American, and Ashleigh Johnson is the first black woman to compete on the U.S. Olympic water polo team. The last Olympic tie for gold was in the men’s 50 free at the 2000 Sydney Games, when Americans Gary Hall Jr. and Anthony Ervin tied for the top spot on the podium.
That’s a sentiment that Manuel emphasized after winning gold Thursday. But they are far from the only African American woman to make history in Rio.
“It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality”, Manuel said. It marks only the second time that two USA gymnasts have won gold and silver in an Olympic all-around- coming after Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But Jones failed to make the US team this year in what could have been his final attempt.
It’s worth noting that the United States of America has two Simones to brag about – Simone Biles is the African-American gymnast who helped lead the U.S. team to the women’s team all-around gold medal. Maritza (Correia), Cullen (Jones), and it’s for all the people after me, who believe they can’t do it.
“I know I can’t beat her, so we’re not competitive with each other”, Raisman said. “About the fifth day, I was working with her on something different than the other students and her mom thought it was because she was in trouble”.
Neal pumped Manuel up before the nighttime finals by singing and dancing together. While appearing on the Today show, Rick joked, “I tell Aly I’m more famous than her!”
As one of two African-American female swimmers on the USA women’s team, Manuel said that she hopes her victory can be an inspiration to women and girls everywhere.
Manuel, who attends Stanford University, was just as shocked as she was excited when she saw her time on the scoreboard, telling the Times that her goal was simply just to get on the medal stand.
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Despite the momentary shade thrown by NBC, Manuel herself remained incredibly positive and gave an incisive and genuine post-race interview where she brought up the current state of US politics and police brutality and voiced that she hopes her swimming success can shed a light in a tense time.
