Indeed, she was far behind the others in the pool, including Australian favorites Cate and Bronte Campbell.
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Her gold medal in the women’s 100 meter freestyle on Thursday just made history for the U.S. Olympic swim team: Manuel just became the first African-American to win an individual Olympic swimming event.
Rie Kaneto of Japan won the gold medal in the women’s 200m final with a time of 2:20.30. “It’s for all the people after me who can’t, who believe they can’t do it”. I hope that I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming.
RIO DE JANEIRO-Already Canada’s star in Rio, Penny Oleksiak’s Olympics crescendoed with the country’s first gold medal of the Summer Games.
Japan’s Rie Kaneto won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s 200 metres breaststroke final, edging out Russian Yulia Efimova who won her second silver of the Games. If the present is anything to go by, the future looks very bright for Toronto-born Oleksiak.
Manuel hopes her race soon becomes a non-issue.
Simone Manuel leaned her head into her hands and cried when she recognized her historic achievement.
After the race, she gave her Mom a big hug and cried while telling her ” Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.
On her victory, Kaneto said: “This was a lifetime ambition”. “It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality”, Manuel said.
For Oleksiak, her time also bettered both her world junior and Canadian national records.
“Just coming into this race tonight, I kind of tried to take the weight of the black community off my shoulders, which is something I carry with me just being in this position”, Manuel said.
Manuel’s win for the night might have been a surprise some, but not those who knew her strengths.
“This medal is not just for me”.
“Then I turned round and saw the one by my name”.
“This win helps bring hope and change to some of the issues that are going on in the world”. Still soaking, she wiped away tears.
Ling points out that not even U.S swimming legend Michael Phelps had success this young.
“The title of black swimmer suggests that I am not supposed to win golds or break records, but that’s not true because I train hard and want to win just like everyone else”, Manuel added.
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How about: Simone, the Olympic champion.
