Brave Simone swam against the tide to win
I CAN’T swim. My grandmother jokes that she never wants to be in more water than she can drink, and I pretty much agree. So does my mother. And my aunts. And my uncles. And most of my cousins.
We’re not an unusual African-American family. The statistics are startling: 68.9 percent of African-American children had “low or no swimming ability,” according to a 2010 study commissioned by USA Swimming and conducted by the University of Memphis. For Hispanic children, the number was 57.9 percent. For Caucasians, it was 41.8 percent.
And despite all the “black people can’t swim” jokes that comedians use to bring down the house, these are dangerous facts. Black children aged 5 to 19 die from drowning at a rate of 5½ times higher than white kids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To understand the significance of what Simone Manuel did on Thursday night, when she became the first African-American woman to win an individual swimming medal in an Olympics, you have to know the current against which she swam. She hasn’t always liked being singled out as a “black swimmer” because she thinks it has a diminishing connotation, but realises how powerful a symbol she now is.
Manuel didn’t just win a medal but recovered from a poor start in the 100m freestyle and finished in a dead heat with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak to share first place in an Olympic record time of 52.70 secs.
“It means a lot to me,” Manuel said. “This medal is not just for me. It’s for some of the African-Americans who have come before me and been an inspiration. I hope I can be an inspiration to others, so this medal is for those who come behind me and get into the sport and hope- fully find the love and drive to get to this point.”
Manuel provided a thrilling moment for all Americans, especially those who remember old Jim Crow laws that once kept blacks out of white pools in the Southern states. She represents hope. Of all the jokes that comedians make about blacks and swimming, the most popular and depressing involve women. The stereotype is black women would rather be cute than swim. It’s more practical than that; water wreaks havoc on black hair. Women can’t just move on and let it dry.
To get to the top, Manuel has had to fight against the notion. She knew she had an opportunity to effect change, to promote a different story, to inspire a new generation that wouldn’t have to believe in long-held stereotypes. It’s a kind of pressure that she had to learn to compartmentalise.
“Yeah, that is something I have definitely struggled with a lot,” said Manuel, a 20-year-old from Sugar Land, Texas, who attends college at Stanford. “I tried to take the weight of the black community off my shoulders as it is something I carry with me being in this position. But I do hope it kind of goes away. I am 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 when there are more of us, and it’s not ‘Simone, the black swimmer’.
When Manuel cried on Thursday night, the wet stuff certainly became a shared experience with African-American communities back home. Black people can swim, some of them extraordinarily fast. Manuel reminded us of this, in 52.70 cathartic seconds.