Simone MANUEL

Simone Manuel is a freestyle swimming specialist from the USA.

She enjoyed a stellar Olympic Games Rio 2016, winning gold alongside Penny Oleksiak in the women's 100m freestyle to become the first Black American woman to land an individual Olympic swimming title. She then sealed silver in the 50m free.

Manuel was also a key figure in the relays, anchoring Team USA to gold in the women's 4x100m medley, and helping the women's 4x100m freestyle team to silver.

To date, Manuel has three individual and eight relay world titles. At the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, she became the first female American swimmer to win both the 50m and 100m freestyle gold medals at a single Worlds. Her total of seven medals (including four gold and three silver) was the most won by any female swimmer ever at a world Championships.

In 2021, the Texas swimmer revealed that she had been diagnosed with over-training syndrome, but found the strength to compete at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, where she was part of the bronze-medal winning women's 4x100m freestyle relay.