Photo via Wikimedia CommonsJust turned 20, Simone Ashley Manuel fully appreciated becoming the first African-American woman to medal in an individual swimming event at the Olympics. “She understands that it’s a part of it”. “I tried to take the weight of the black community off my shoulders as it is something I carry with me being in this position”.
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“It’s moments like Simone touching [winning the gold medal] yesterday that will be seen by a child that’s sitting with their parents or their loved ones saying “I want to do that too” that will change this perception of swimming”, said Cullen Jones, two-time Olympian and the first Black swimmer to break an Olympic record. Manuel learned Mandarin as a result. She also served on USA Swimming’s diversity and inclusion committee.
Her brothers chose a different yet just as competitive sport: basketball. That inspired and motivated her to keep going.
After winning the gold, Manuel and US gymnast Simone Biles – gold medalist and All-Around competition champion in Rio – celebrated their victories, as well as their mutual first name.
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.
As far back as African slaves being brought to America on ships overseas, to the Jim Crow south that kept Blacks, regardless of economic status, out of white pools, to recent events of Black children being kicked out of a pool party in Texas. Black children ages 5 to 19 die from drowning at a rate 5 1/2 times higher than white children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Manuel’s passion for the sport extends beyond the pool. In the 1960s, many whites left cities for private pools and clubs in the suburbs, where segregation continued to exist.
But now her daughter is part of the history, part of that learning process. “I had no idea how many people watched that and saw that”. Congrats also poured in from Tony Award-winning actor and writer Lin-Manuel Miranda of the Broadway smash “Hamilton” and NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson. I want to be an inspiration, but I would like there to be a day when it is not ‘Simone the black swimmer’.
Manuel singled out Jones, Neal and Correia for blazing a path.
“This medal is not just for me”.
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“You have to work hard and be pretty smart to get into a school like this – but honestly, that’s another reason why I picked it, because I wanted to be in this atmosphere and challenge myself”, she told USA Swimming this year.
