Simone Manuel Becomes First African-American Female Olympic Swimmer to Win Individual Gold

Sports

The 20-year-old Stanford student makes history as she ties with Canadian Penny Oleksiak in the 100 freestyle

Simone Manuel
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Simone Manuel won a gold medal at the Rio Olympics on Thursday — and secured her spot in history.

The 20-year-old became the first African-American woman to win a gold in an individual swimming event when she tied with Canadian Penny Oleksiak in the 100 freestyle.

“I hope that I can be an inspiration to others, so this medal is for the people who come behind me and get into the sport and hopefully find love and drive to get to this point,” Manuel said afterward, according to NBC.

The Stanford student went on touch on “some of the issues with police brutality.”

“I think that this win helps bring hope and change to some of the issues that are going on in the world, but I mean, I went out there and swam as fast as I could, and my color just comes with the territory,” she said.

Manuel’s groundbreaking victory and Olympic-record time of 52.70 seconds won accolades from fellow athletes and entertainment stars alike in an outpouring of love on social media.

See some of the tweets below.

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