Simone Manuel overcome with emotion after historic swim for America

She became the first African-American woman to win a medal at an individual Olympic swimming event.
 By 
Jenni Ryall
 on 
Simone Manuel overcome with emotion after historic swim for America
Simone Manuel of the United States celebrates after winning gold in the Women's 100m Freestyle Final. Credit: Getty Images

This is one of the most historic moments from the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Swimmer Simone Manuel has become the first African-American woman to win a gold medal in an individual Olympic swimming event.

The 20-year-old from Texas won the gold medal on Thursday night in the women's 100-meter freestyle in Rio, Brazil. Manuel tied for first place with Canadian teenager Penny Oleksiak, with both setting an Olympic record of 52.70 seconds.


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Following the race, she was overcome with pride and emotion.

"It means a lot, this medal is not just for me, it's for a whole bunch of people who came before me and been an inspiration to me," Manuel said after the race, with tears streaming down her face. "It's for all the people after me who believe they can't do it. I just want to be an inspiration to other that you can do it."

Manuel follows in the footsteps of other African-American Team USA swimmers like Maritza Correia, who won a silver medal for swimming in the prelim heats of the 400 meter free relay at the 2004 Olympics, and Lia Neal, who won bronze in 2012 in the same event.

And while Manuel's individual medal is a historic moment, she had already earned a silver medal as part of Team USA's 4x100 meter freestyle relay team.

She's got one event left: the 50 meter freestyle which begins Friday.

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Jenni Ryall

Jenni Ryall is Mashable's VP of Content Strategy. She spends her time launching cool, new things such as Mashable Deals and Mashable Reels. On the other days, she is developing strong partnerships with companies including Apple News, Flipboard, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

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