20-year-old Simone Manuel has made history for herself and the United States as she sets a new Olympic record to become the first black woman to win an individual swimming gold.
Simone who is a Stanford University student is also the first American to win the 100m freestyle since the 1984 Olympics.
The swimmer after her race was teary-eyed as she could not hold in her emotions.
While receiving the medal, she said: “This medal is not just for me, it’s for a whole bunch of people who have come before me and have been an inspiration to me.
“And it’s for all the people after me who believe you can’t do it.
“I just want to be an inspiration to others that you can do it.”
Manuel who tied with Canadian swimmer, Penny Oleksiak in an Olympic record time of 52.70 seconds also addressed the issue of racial discrimination as she said: “I’m super glad that I can be an inspiration to others and hopefully diversify the sport.
“But at the same time, I would like there to be a day where there are more of us and it’s not like ‘Simone, the black swimmer,’ because the title ‘black swimmer’ makes it seem like I’m not supposed to be able to win a gold medal”.
Leave a Reply