Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom finished third for bronze.
Advertisement
“It’s fantastic to tie for gold. I never thought I’d win a gold”, Oleksiak said.
Manuel also has a silver medal to her name. “It means so much”.
The Canadian became the first swimmer born in the 21st century to win a gold medal in any Olympic sport.
The medal was the second in Rio for Olympic rookie Manuel, who was part of the silver medal winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay on Saturday.
American Jacob Pebley finished fifth. Only Katinka Hosszu of Hungary had a faster time than Caldwell (2:06.03).
Dominique Bouchard of North Bay, Ont., was ninth in the women’s backstroke and did not get another swim.
Simone Manuel tied for gold with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak in the women’s 100-meter freestyle Thursday night, becoming the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual swimming event. And it showed. Manuel stood on the blocks with reigning world champion Bronte Campbell from Australia on her right; to her left, Bronte’s sister, current world-record holder Cate Campbell. He believes Oleksiak can win multiple medals at more than one Olympics, as only a few swimmers have done, most notably USA star Michael Phelps.
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.
West Kelowna native Kierra Smith came in seventh in her first Olympic final in the 200-metre breaststroke.
Canada still has a chance to clinch a medal in tennis, but the dreams of a gold were dashed Thursday. She didn’t come to the Rio Games knowing she could swim into the history books with a groundbreaking performance Thursday night at the Olympics Aquatics Stadium.
Calgary’s Allison Beveridge, Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver, B.C., and the Vancouver duo of Jasmin Glaesser and Laura Brown completed the 4,000-metre event where teams race in tandem with a time of four minutes 19.599 seconds.
The final is slated to begin at 6:17 p.m. local time tonight.
By the time she was in high school, Manuel was setting national age group records in the 50 and 100-yard freestyles.
Women’s 800 freestyle – Brittany MacLean, Toronto, was 10th in qualifying (8:26.43), did not advance.
Advertisement
As an African-American swimmer, Simone Manuel has carried a weight on her shoulders every time she steps onto the starting blocks.
