Manuel, Simone (1996-…), is a champion American swimmer. Manuel has won seven Olympic medals—two gold, four silver, and one bronze. In 2016, she became the first African American woman to win an individual Olympic Games medal in swimming.
At the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Manuel tied for the gold medal with Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak in the 100-meter freestyle. Their time of 52.70 seconds set an Olympic record. Manuel also won a gold medal as a member of the United States 400-meter medley relay team. She won silver medals in the 50-meter freestyle and in the 400-meter freestyle relay.
At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Manuel won a bronze medal as a member of the American 400-meter freestyle relay team. The 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, she won silver medals as a member of the American 400-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle relay teams.
Manuel also enjoyed success at the FINA World Championships. FINA, the organization governing international competitive swimming, is now called World Aquatics. From 2013 to 2019, Manuel won 11 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals at the championships.
Simone Ashley Manuel was born on Aug. 2, 1996, in Sugar Land, Texas. She began taking swimming lessons at the age of 4. By the age of 11, she was swimming with a local club, First Colony Swim Team. Manuel graduated from high school in 2014 and enrolled at Stanford University, where she competed on the school swimming team. During her freshman year, she broke the American record for the 100-yard freestyle. After setting many records and claiming national titles during her college swimming career, Manuel won the 2018 Honda Cup as America’s top collegiate woman athlete.
