I don’t know, so let’s look it up, ‘ ” said Sharron Manuel, Simone’s mother. We’ll start by taking a dip in the pool as family.
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“Now, I want to challenge myself and push myself a little more than what I used to, because now I could think I can do the same thing that she did”, Ronald Hickey says. In a CNN interview, she discussed her reasons for attending Stanford.
Going down the line of history, it is told that when it comes to the use of pools by Blacks, it has really been an eyesore with issues of pool owners pouring acids in pools just because Blacks would go and swim in them. “I love it, I have fun, and just representing my country is the greatest honor I could ever have”, she said Monday on TODAY. And it’s for all the people after me who believe they can’t do it.
Historically, segregation and discrimination caused a lack of access to public pools throughout the 1900’s and personal pools were unheard of. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at every age, black kids are drowning more than white kids, and most often in swimming pools.
Taken together, that history puts African-American children at risk. American Haley Anderson won silver in the event four years ago in London.
Simone Biles has been the most impressive Olympic gymnast this year. But we’ll also keep an eye on 2012 silver medalist Australia, which had a decent qualifying round at fifth.
As you can imagine, the swimming events are of particular interest to the man who led the Albany State swim team to back-to-back Black National Championships in 1979 and 1980.
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. Just in terms of sharing that with Penny, she’s an awesome girl. Tears rolled down each of Manuel’s cheeks as she sang along.
The victory earned her a call out from National Basketball Association legend LeBron James, who described Manuel (and fellow Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles) in an Instagram post as “truly inspiring for so many, especially young black girls” like his daughter. “I do hope that kind of goes away”.
“I’m super glad that I can be an inspiration to others and hopefully diversify the sport”. “The title “black swimmer” makes it seem like I am not supposed to be able to win a gold medal, I am not supposed to be able to break records”.
She spoke of the difficulty in being a rare black swimmer on the American team, how it has attracted positive attention but at the same time brought a burden.
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“I’m not sure if this will change the perception immediately”, Sharron said. But I’ve heard it more times than I care to remember. “She’s done something she’ll never understand, we’ll take it, we’ll take it”.
