Everyone knows Simone Biles always ends her competition having a slice of pepperoni pizza so I shot that she hours of myself taking a bite of the pizza because I was that confident. Manuel and Oleksiak shared the top spot on the medal podium, with the U.S. anthem played first followed by the Canadian anthem. In 2000, Anthony Ervin became the first African-American to medal in Olympic swimming, winning gold in the 50-meter freestyle and silver in the 4×100-meter freestyle in Sydney.
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Add that to three world championship all-around titles, a record 10 worlds golds and four USA championships, and Biles already has quite the resume. Instead, it was Manuel who touched at the same time as 16-year-old Oleksiak, the youngest swimmer in the field.
Whatever Simone Biles’ future is after these Olympics, her longtime coach doesn’t expect an answer soon. “I never thought I would be in this position but I’m so blessed and honored to be on the medal stand”. Check out this swimmer’s reaction to Manuel’s success in the video above. These types of situations can only motivate you, and Biles is motivated and works extremely hard.
“It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality”, Manuel told reporters in Rio.
In victory, she said the win isn’t exclusively for her. If she wins the individual vault, individual beam and individual floor events, she will take home five gold medals in her first Olympics appearance.
Within the gymnastics community, her dominance has always been established. With so much passion and dedication, she is truly a pleasure to watch and inspiration for generations to come.
Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky, who holds nine out of the top 10 records in women’s 400 freestyle swimming, is arguably the best female Olympic swimmer of all time.
In a time where headline writers are at the mercy of Google’s search algorithms, it’s possible that whoever was writing the headline was thinking about keywords – history, Olympics, Michael Phelps, African American – and just jammed them all together.
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Her brothers chose a different yet just as competitive sport: basketball.
