And while Manuel is the first African-American female swimmer to win an individual medal – as well as a gold – for the USA, she credits Mr. Jones, Ms. Correia, and Ms. Neal for paving the way.
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Last night saw swimmer Simone Manuel bag a gold medal in the women’s 100 meter freestyle race for team USA. In doing so Simone and Penny also set a new Olympic record. “I’m just so blessed”.
That’s why, when Manuel won gold Thursday night, she wasn’t just an athlete excelling at her sport.
Despite the fact that Manuel made a huge historic win, NBC neglected to air her medal ceremony until almost an hour after the race itself. “This medal is not just for me. I hope that I can be an inspiration for others”. Maritza (Correia), Cullen (Jones), and it’s for all the people after me, who believe they can’t do it.
“It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality”, she said. “But I do hope that it kind of goes away”.
It was the first victory by the U.S.in the women’s 100 free since 1984, when Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer also shared gold. While he is likely taking in plenty of hoops, he has spent time watching other events as well.
While the world and social media lauded her milestone, Manuel didn’t have time to celebrate.
Thompson was never challenged in the race, winning by one-tenth of a second as her lead widened before she crossed the finish lane.
Manuel grew up in Texas, but made a decision to go west for college. She now is on the women’s swimming team at Stanford University.
Manuel, who swims collegiately at Stanford, eventually took part in a historical NCAA championship race.
And she’s in good company. He now has 13 individual golds and 26 medals overall.
USA Swimming described Manuel as a “powerful and gutsy no-limits swimmer”.
She makes sure to eat a banana before she competes in order to get in some potassium before she shows the world who’s boss.
This was the young woman’s first Olympic competition. Access to pools has always been a challenge as African-Americans were often officially denied entrance to pools during segregation, then unofficially excluded in other ways afterward.
RIO DE JANEIRO-As an African-American swimmer, Simone Manuel has carried a weight on her shoulders every time she steps onto the starting blocks. But the trick, at least until her final swim, is to put that out of her mind.
Nada Al-Bedwawi was also moved by Manuel’s historic swim. The reigning Olympic champion in the event, Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands, will be next to her in Lane 5.
Simone Biles performs her routine during the artistic gymnastics women’s individual all-around final event.
“We were always encouraged to try what we wanted to do”.
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“Those antics really fired him up and brought out a much better performance than we would had seen otherwise”, Coughlin said.
