Simone Manuel of the United States celebrates winning gold in the Women’s 100m Freestyle Final on Day 6 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 11, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Manuel, meanwhile, also became the first American to win gold in the women’s 100 freestyle since 1984, when Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer shared first place. A FINA official confirmed that Manuel is the first African American woman to win Olympic gold in an individual event.
Manuel, who is a rising junior on The Farm, set an Olympic and American record to tie for the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle at Rio Games. I’m super glad with the fact that I can be an inspiration to others and hopefully diversify the sport. “I’m just so blessed to have a gold medal”.
Black US gymnast Simone Biles, 19, also won her second gold on Thursday night at her first Olympic Games – and is expected to bag more. It was anyone’s race, and the world record holder right next to her just started fading, and Oleksiak was capitalizing.
Manuel said: “It means a lot to me, especially what’s going on in the world today and some of the issues with police brutality”.
Her jaw dropped as she looked up to the scoreboard and saw a tie for gold and an Olympic-record time of 52.70 seconds. I just hit the wall and tried to catch my breath before doing anything, “she said”. She swam the final 50 meters of Thursday’s event in just 27.46 seconds, making up ground to Oleksiak in a flash.
“After I stared at it a little while I realised I tied with Penny”, Manuel said.
Manuel and Phelps both got emotional on the medal podium when the national anthem played. But I was like, oh, I’m on the medal stand.
Manuel previously earned a silver medal after competing in the 4×100-meter freestyle with teammates Katie Ledecky, Abbey Weitzeil and Dana Vollmer on Saturday.
With the win, she also gave the USA its first gold in the women’s 100 free since 1984 – when Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer tied.
North Americans won four out of the five gold medals awarded tonight, marking another terrific session for both the Americans and Canadians. “I do hope that kind of goes away”.
“I first saw the name of Simone and I immediately thought that I had finished 2nd”.
“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.
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