Manuel, 20, became the first black female swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal, while Oleksiak, 16, won Canada’s first gold of the Games. But something magical happened soon enough and Manuel sped ahead with the grace and speed of a mermaid who was in her element.
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Simone Manuel and Canada’s Penny Oleksiak receive joint gold medals in the 100-meter freestyle at Rio 2016.
Off the field of play, the CBC apologized Thursday morning after one of its Olympic commentators said on the air that a Chinese swimmer “died like a pig” during her race the night before.
Oleksiak and Manuel finished in an Olympic record time of 52.70 seconds, while Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden captured bronze in 52.99 seconds. But the Aussie siblings, who teamed up to lead their country to gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay, couldn’t hang on.
How soon we forget the bad old days, when the midpoint of an Olympics was marked by the obligatory Canadian Olympic Committee press conference to point out the positives gleaned from finals made and medailles chocolat earned, as the French call fourth-place finishes. Oleksiak, 16, became the first Olympic gold medalist born in the new millennium.
Manuel and Oleksiak embraced in the pool, shared the podium and listened to each other’s anthems. She couldn’t. But the tears weren’t just for her pursuit. “So it’s a little bit emotional”, she said.
With a Maple Leaf flag on her shoulders and fresh gold draped around her neck, Penny Oleksiak clambered up from the pool deck to seek out the one person in the Olympic Aquatic Centre house who ignited her remarkable explosion as Canada’s greatest Summer Olympian: her big sister. Her roommate in Rio, Katie Ledecky, is a fellow gold medal victor and an incoming freshman at Stanford.
Manuel’s victory took on added significance in a sport that still has few people of color, especially in light of the racial divide in the United States. She even mentioned “some of the issues with police brutality”.
Until now, Cullen Jones had been the face of swimming for minorities in America, having won two golds and two silvers at the last two Olympics. But Jones failed to make the US team this year in what could have been his final attempt. Australia’s Cate Campbell was the top seed, the world-record holder – indeed, swimmer of six of the eight fastest times in history – who swam the anchor leg of the Aussies’ gold-medal winning 4×100 relay team earlier in the meet.
Manuel singled out Jones, Neal and Correia for blazing a path.
The original headline on this story was insensitive and has been updated to acknowledge the historic gold medal wins by both Simone Manuel and Michael Phelps.
Indeed, Manuel is a refreshing representation of what is possible for black athletes, but also for African Americans who have long stayed pool side. I hope that I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming. “I want my part in it”, said the 25-year-old Caldwell. Olympic historian Bill Mallon, a maven of all things statistical, wrote: “If you had asked me one week ago who or what Penny Oleksiak was, I would have said an affordable vegetable oil”. The statistics are startling: 68.9 percent of African-American children had “low or no swim ability”, according to a 2010 study commissioned by USA Swimming and conducted by the University of Memphis.
“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”.
“I just wanted to re-focus and move forward from the 100”, she said.
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Although she was disappointed with her time, she took solace in knowing that she is a role model for young girls in Botswana, a nation of 2.1 million people and two 50-meter swimming pools.
