Simone Manuel became the first black woman to win an individual medal in swimming, tying for gold with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak in the 100-meter freestyle.
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Manuel clocked in at a stunning 52.70 seconds.
McAlpine described Oleksiak as well-grounded and humble, and described how she blushed when her classmates applauded her for setting a new Canadian record at a meet. Cullen Jones, who almost drowned as a small child, became the second black swimmer to break a world record (Anthony Ervin was the first) when he raced in the 100-meter freestyle relay at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships.
“I am the first Emerati to represent my country, and it’s such a great honor and I really hope when I get back to the country I can have some sort of campaign to encourage women in sports, especially swimming”, she said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – When she was 11, Simone Manuel came home and asked her mother a question: Why weren’t there more people who looked like her in swimming?
For young black swimmers, Manuel is now that person who looks like them – a hero in whose mold their aspirations can be modeled. He has won three Olympic medals (two silver and one gold) and holds the American record in the 50-meter freestyle. “I felt like I was swimming every stroke with her”.
Before Manuel, there were only a handful of minorities on the USA national team.
When Manuel and teammate Lia Neal were both selected for Rio, it was the first time two black female athletes were chosen to be on the American swim team at the same time. But those numbers have been creeping up slightly in the past few years. Black swimmers got smaller indoor pools if they were lucky. That year, young black and white protesters in St. Augustine, Florida, were assaulted with acid thrown into the pool water before being locked in jail in their bathing suits for daring to challenge segregation. He has gone on to do some activism around black folks and swimming, encouraging diversity in the pool and increased swimming education. According to USA Swimming statistics, 70 percent of African Americans and 60 percent of Hispanic and Latino children can not swim compared to 40 percent of whites. Incidents of drowning are much higher among young people in the community, too, those researchers say.
Fellow Stanford students frequently mistake Manuel for a volleyball or basketball player.
Simone Manuel with an American flag after the women’s 100m freestyle final in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Olympic Aquatics Stadium. She even mentioned “some of the issues with police brutality”.
While acknowledging the importance of her medal, she said that she hoped enough people would follow in her footsteps that it won’t be such a talking point in years to come.
Swimmer Simone Manuel is putting her historic Olympic win into perspective. “I want to win just like everybody else”.
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“The last 15m, I put my head down and I bit my lip and I was just going as hard as I could”.
