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Why Simone Manuel's Olympic gold medal in swimming matters [View all]
Source: BBC
Why Simone Manuel's Olympic gold medal in swimming matters
12 August 2016 US & Canada
Records, as the sporting cliche goes, are there to be broken, but while Simone Manuel's Olympic record time in the women's 100m freestyle final will eventually be surpassed, she achieved a first that no-one can take away.
Touching home at the end of a remarkable race, Manuel became the first black female swimmer to win an Olympic gold. She said she hoped her victory would encourage greater diversity in her sport.
"This medal is not just for me, it's for some of the African-Americans who have been before me and been inspirations," she said.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
African-Americans have been shut out of swimming pools for generations
Swimming pools have been a racially sensitive flashpoint in the US for generations. African-American people were often denied access to pools in the segregation era, and even after its abolition white people found other ways to exclude them. Nor has building pools for black areas been a priority.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
12 August 2016 US & Canada
Records, as the sporting cliche goes, are there to be broken, but while Simone Manuel's Olympic record time in the women's 100m freestyle final will eventually be surpassed, she achieved a first that no-one can take away.
Touching home at the end of a remarkable race, Manuel became the first black female swimmer to win an Olympic gold. She said she hoped her victory would encourage greater diversity in her sport.
"This medal is not just for me, it's for some of the African-Americans who have been before me and been inspirations," she said.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
African-Americans have been shut out of swimming pools for generations
Swimming pools have been a racially sensitive flashpoint in the US for generations. African-American people were often denied access to pools in the segregation era, and even after its abolition white people found other ways to exclude them. Nor has building pools for black areas been a priority.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37057236
[font size=1]Despite her historic achievement, Manuel stressed she did not want to be known as "Simone, the black swimmer"[/font]
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