Sure, she and Oleksiak broke the Olympic record, but Manuel is the the first African American woman to win a gold medal in an individual swimming event.
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Making history as the first black woman swimmer to win an individual Olympic title for the United States, Manuel spoke of her desire to change attitudes and addressed some of the issues head-on.
Manuel and Penny Alexia of Canada touched the wall at for 52.17 seconds, setting a new Olympic record.
While the Stanford student hopes to encourage other young black athletes to dip a toe in the pool, but at the same time, she says she resents the labels put on her.
At the time, Ervin was the first person of African-American heritage to win a gold medal. In an interview after her win, she told SportingNews “I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps”. But in this case, two swimmers who had matched each other stroke for stroke – Simone Manuel of the US and Penny Oleksiak of Canada – came into the wall at the same instant.
“My first gold medal, at my first Olympics, is kind of a surprise to me”, Manuel told reporters. When questioned by reporters about the teammates’ standings, Simone said, “I think I was more proud of Aly getting silver than me gold”.
She was catapulted into the limelight during her emotional victory in the women’s 100m freestyle – an event the USA has not won since 1984. But no sooner was she saluting the crowd than she was waving to Raisman to join her in her gold medal moment.
The Olympian has already won three gold medals at the Summer Games (added to her one gold in London) and she’s broken 12 world records throughout her career. Even fellow gymnasts are baffled at how she masters the stunts that many are too afraid to even try!
Manuel said she sees this victory as still far bigger than she is.
For Simone Biles, it is drawing a dollar sign in chalk that gets her going for gold.
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She tried, as so many gold medalists have before her, to hold back tears. “This medal is not just for me”. The Post explains that Harrison had been sexually abused by her family friend and coach, Daniel Doyle, starting when she was just 13 and it continued for three years.
