OLYMPICS: ‘All glory to God’ after winning historic gold medal

Gold medallist USA’s Simone Manuel wave her national flag during the medal ceremony of the Women’s 100m Freestyle Final during the swimming event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 11, 2016.

Mom didn’t have an answer.

“It means a lot [to be the first black woman to earn gold in the pool]”, Manuel said after the race. Her roommate in Rio, Katie Ledecky, is a fellow gold medal victor and an incoming freshman at Stanford. When it was over, Marc and Sharron Manuel couldn’t immediately see the videoboard with the results.

RIO DE JANEIRO-As an African-American swimmer, Simone Manuel has carried a weight on her shoulders every time she steps onto the starting blocks.

Manuel qualified for the 100 free finals on Wednesday when she was second overall in the prelims with a time of 53.32, and then finished first in the semifinals at 53.11.

Kelowna, B.C., native Kierra Smith will be competing in her first Olympic final in the 200-metre breastroke. Her tear-filled winning interview further endeared her to an audience that woke up not knowing her name and spent the night witnessing her life’s proudest moment.

While the world and social media lauded her milestone, Manuel didn’t have time to celebrate. She was staying off her phone that froze up because of an overload of text messages and calls.

“It is something I’ve definitely struggled with a lot”, she said.

Manuel’s performance was not only significant, it was stunning. After her win, she mentioned police brutality in the USA and said she hoped her victory helps mend the nation’s racial divide in some way. “And that’s not true because I work just as hard as anybody else, and I love the sport, and I want to win just like everybody else!” “She would like to be recognized for her merits and dedication”.

“My color kind of comes with the territory”, she said.

Her goal coming to Rio was to make the medal stand. The other went to 16-year-old Canadian Penny Oleksiak.

Campbell was on pace to take her world record even lower when she made the turn out front, with little sister Bronte right behind her. She is a rising junior at Stanford University in California, where she’s part of the swimming team. Manuel learned Mandarin as a result.

Her brothers chose a different yet equally competitive sport: basketball. That inspired and motivated her to keep going.

Before Manuel, there were only a handful of minorities on the USA national team.

Until now, Cullen Jones had been the face of swimming for minorities in America, having won two golds and two silvers at the last two Olympics. Jones was the first African-American to break a world record in swimming. Black children drown at a rate almost three times higher than their white peers.

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.

Her win came as a surprise to many – including, it seems, herself. Who is Simone Manuel?

Manuel singled out Jones, Neal and Correia for blazing a path. “She deserves it as much as me”, said Oleksiak. “And I just want to be inspiration to others that you can do it”. “And they can be pretty big”.