“Hopefully it will get them inspired”, Manuel said following her victory.
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The paper has since apologized, updating their story with an apology, calling their original, shitty headline “insensitive”, and replacing it with, “Stanford’s Simone Manuel and Michael Phelps make history”. Four years after Gabby Douglas became the first African-American to win individual gold in Olympics gymnastics, America returned with a squad that was as dominant as any the sport has ever seen.
‘We have always just emphasized encouraging her to be the best Simone that she can be’. Canada’s Penny Oleksiak, right, andUnited States’ Simone Manuel celebrate their tie for gold in the women’s 100-meter freestyle at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, early Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.
Tears streamed down the young Team USA star’s cheeks as she emerged from the pool and gave a powerful interview decrying racial tensions in the US and the recent police shootings of unarmed black men.
The 20-year-old from Sugar Land, Texas, had just become the first African American woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming. It’s not just about her skin color.
While the greatest basketball player on the planet in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James is not representing Team USA on the hardwood, James has been known to recognize greatness among athletes across all sports.
Lourdes knows exactly what she wants to do. “She understands that it’s a part of it”.
“I ain’t gettin’ in no water”, my grandmother used to say with a dismissive wave while I begged her to sit on the steps in the shallow end of my suburb’s public pool while I splashed around. When it was over, Marc and Sharron Manuel couldn’t immediately see the videoboard with the results.
She spoke of the difficulty in being a rare black swimmer on the American team, how it has attracted positive attention but at the same time brought a burden.
“I think that’s really big, especially for the African-American community”, said Alexandria Robinson, a lifeguard at the YMCA. I hope that I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming.
‘We got on the internet and we looked up information and pooled different articles and reading.
The pair finished at 52.70 seconds, breaking the Olympic record by 0.01.
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Claressa Shields, the first American woman to win gold in boxing, tweeted, “Way to go Simone Manuel!”.
