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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSimone Manuel (Spoiler)
First African American female to medal in swimming. She does it in style with a gold.
Priceless reaction to her victory as well.
MadDAsHell
(2,067 posts)Geez...NBC sucks. Gal has just won the race, her first individual gold, and the first time the US has won the this race since 1984, yet all NBC wants to know is how she felt winning it because of her skin color. At what point will we just allow these athletes to be athletes? Or will it perpetually be "the first African-American to" and "he's only the 15th person of color to"...
WTF NBC. We are fkin more than just our skin color you racist pricks.
LovingA2andMI
(7,006 posts)Why?
Because Simone Manual made history PERIOD. First Female African-American to SLAY an Individual Olympic Swimming Event - The 100M Freestyle - WHILE Breaking a World Record In The Event.
Simone has made ALL African-American Females Proud Today as WE have been told too many times over that swimming was not a "Sport for Us".
Simone just kicked that door down and stomped on it.
Congrats Simone. YOU ROCK!!!
Simone Manuel is now the first African-American woman to win a medal in an individual swimming event. And that medal is gold.
But her win is not just meaningful for herselfits a huge moment for black people in the United States. As the Texas native said in a post-swim interview:
"This medal is not just for me, its for a whole bunch of people who have came before me and who have been an inspirational for me Maritza Correia [the first black woman to break an American record and the first black woman to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic swim team]. And its for all the people after me, who believe they cant do it And I just want to be an inspiration to othersthat you can do it."
The fact that its 2016 and Simone Manuel is the first black American to medal in an individual swimming event is not surprising if you know anything about American history.
As writer Evette Dionne notes in a piece for The Revelist, public pools in the United States were not traditionally built in black neighborhoods, and public pools have a shameful history of racial segregation. In the 1950s and 1960s, public pools were turned into private pools just to keep black people out of them. Jenée Desmond-Harris wrote a post for Vox appropriately titled Keeping black people away from white swimming pools is an American tradition, and it highlights this atrocious, systemic racism. Jeff Wiltse, the the author of Contested Waters, a book about the history of controversy surrounding Americas public pools, has said that in some cases, integrating swimming pools was even more contentious than integrating schools.
So, there were two ways in which communities racially-segregated pools at the time. One was through official segregation, and so police officers and city officials would prevent black Americans from entering pools that had been earmarked for whites. The other way of segregating pools was through violence.
And so, a city like Pittsburgh, it did not pass an official policy of racial segregation at its pools. But rather, the police and the city officials allowed, and in some cases encouraged, white swimmers to literally beat black swimmers out of the water, as a means of segregating pools, as a means of intimidating them from trying to access pools.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, in Las Vegas in the 1950s, Sammy Davis Jr. took a swim at a hotel and, afterward, the manager drained the pool. So yeah, Simone Manuels win is a big deal, and a highly emotional moment."
http://fusion.net/story/335984/simone-manuel-gold-medal-historic-racism/
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)I just watched the replay of her swim, and that was a fantastic race! Why can't that goofy lady that pesters all the swimmers as soon as they get out of the pool just tell her how exciting that was to watch? I would have been over there high fiving and telling her what a great job she had done.
That young lady dug deep within herself, reached out and grabbed herself a big ole chunk of gold. It was great!
Congratulations, Simone Manuel, well done!
edit to add: I was so excited after watching that race, that I totally forgot to address the content of your comment. I had literally just watched it before logging on. I still have the smile on my face. Yes, the historic nature of Simone's significance as a female African-American athlete should not be understated...it should be celebrated. Her success at these Olympics will hopefully be a huge catalyst for more involvement in the sport by all young women of color. I, for one, wholeheartedly welcome that development. I think she sounds very interesting, and I hope they tell us much more about her. And I hope to see Simone win many, many more medals.
uponit7771
(90,346 posts)maryellen99
(3,789 posts)mcar
(42,334 posts)What a race!
DCBob
(24,689 posts)I dont think ive ever seen a tie for gold.
Congrats to Simone!
oswaldactedalone
(3,491 posts)They were showing it earlier tonight, think it happened in the 2000 Games.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)oswaldactedalone
(3,491 posts)two Campbell sisters from Australia, one of whom raced out to an early lead but couldn't hang on and finished fourth. The African-American thing is pretty big considering it's swimming we're talking about. Great job, Simone Manuel!!!
Princess Turandot
(4,787 posts)when she looked up to check her result, her mouth literally dropped open. She's just turned 20 and attends Stanford. Earlier in the week, she was part of the team that placed second in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Oddly, the last time a US woman won the 100m freestyle, in 1984, it was also a tie (between 2 Americans)!
malaise
(269,023 posts)Simone Manuel made history in the pool on Thursday night, as she became the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold in an individual swimming event.
The gold medal wasnt just for me. It was for people that came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport, she said. For people who believe that they cant do it. I hope Im an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming. You might be pretty good at it.
She also said she was aware of what her victory meant in the current political climate in the US. It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality, Manuel said. This win hopefully brings hope and change to some of the issues that are going on. My color just comes with the territory.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/11/simone-manuel-gold-medal-rio-2016-olympics-makes-swimming-history
DinahMoeHum
(21,794 posts)TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)She's from my neck of the woods, and swam on the same team my daughter swam on years ago. (My daughter quit in 9th grade when traveling became a pita in order to pursue other areas of talent and interest. I doubt she would have gotten a collegiate scholarship let alone become an Olympian! Good decision. )
Way to go, Simone!