Both clocked in at an impressive 52.70 seconds and set a new Olympic record.
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Rio de Janeiro: Canadian teenager Penny Oleksiak and American Simone Manuel dead-heated for the Olympic gold medal in the women’s 100m freestyle at Rio on Thursday.
By doing so, she became the first black woman to win an individual swimming gold medal and the first African-American woman to medal in swimming.
Simone Manuel swam her way to a historic victory in Rio on Thursday, holding off world record holder Cate Campbell of Australia to grab 100 meter freestyle gold in a tie with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak.
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. Cate’s younger sister Bronte had a personal best that made her the third fastest in the event’s history. But the Aussie siblings, who teamed up to lead their country to gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay, couldn’t hang on. It was an incredible moment for an incredible athlete who at 20 years old is only getting started. Born in June 2000, she is the first person to win an individual Olympic gold who has only been alive in this century, The Guardian noted.
Yet Manuel had largely struggled en route to her first Olympics, failing to post a best time at USA trials. She said she picked the university for its values.
Lochte, whose mother hails from Cuba, won a gold medal in the men’s 4x200m swimming relay. One of her all-around teammates, Aly Raisman won silver with a score of 60.098. She even mentioned “some of the issues with police brutality”.
Asked if her gold medal was also a message of “tolerance and diversity”, she said, “Yeah, it means a lot, especially with what is going in the world today”.
Kennedy said nationally, 70 percent of African American children don’t learn how to swim, but he expects that will change after Rio. Manuel won silver with the U.S. relay team, and Oleksiak claimed silver in the 200m butterfly and two bronzes in the freestyle relays.
Manuel singled out Jones, Neal and Correia for blazing a path.
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“All I can say is all glory to God, it’s definitely been a long journey these last four years”, she said before her voice began to break. It was for people who have came before me and inspired me to stay in this sport, and for people who believe that they can’t do it.
