As the first African-American woman to win gold in an individual Olympic swimming event, Simone Manuel knew the colour of her skin would generate more interest than the colour of the medal she had just won.
Proud of her achievement, she said she hoped her historic win in the women’s 100 metres freestyle at the Rio Olympics on Thursday would pave the way for other African-American swimmers to succeed.
But the 20-year-old, whose win was all the more remarkable because she was involved in a rare dead-heat for gold, also hoped the day would come when questions about her race would refer to what happened in the pool rather than her ethnicity.
“I’m super glad with the fact 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 Simone ‘the black swimmer,’” she told a news conference after her victory.
“Because the title ‘black swimmer’ makes it seem like I’m not supposed to be able to win a gold medal, I’m not supposed to break records, and that’s not true because I work just as hard as anyone else and I love the sport and I want to win just like everybody else.”
Only a handful of black swimmers have represented the United States at the Olympics and few of them have won medals.
The first was Anthony Ervin at Sydney in 2000.
Four years later at Athens, Maritza Correia became the first female medal winner, collecting a relay silver.
Cullen Jones and Lia Neal have also won medals and Manuel, who became the first American woman in 32 years to win gold in the 100m freestyle when she tied with Canadian teenager Penny Oleksiak, said she hopes there would be plenty more African-Americans to follow.
“This medal is not just for me, it’s for some of the African-Americans who came before me and have been an inspiration to me,” she said.
“I hope that I can be an inspiration for others, so this medal is for the people who come behind me.”
“I think it means a lot, especially with what’s going on in the world today, a lot of the issues, especially police brutality.
This win kind of brings hope and change to some of the issues that are going on in the world.”