Not only did Simone Manuel fail to add to her medal count in the 50-meter freestyle, she didn’t even get to compete on the biggest stage.
Manuel, one of the biggest stars of America’s women’s swimming team, didn’t qualify Saturday for the semifinals in the 50-meter freestyle at the Paris Olympics.
It was a shockingly early elimination for the five-time Olympic medalist and the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming.
Manuel, 27, posted the 18th-fastest preliminary time (24.87 seconds) in the sprint across one length of the pool.
She previously collected a silver for her anchor leg in the 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay in Paris.
Manuel reportedly stormed off the pool deck Saturday and declined comment with a “nope” when asked for an interview.
“Interviews/recordings/ photography in these moments really aren’t necessary,” Manuel wrote on Twitter hours before her race. “I can attest to the fact that the moment is already traumatic and the capture of it is even more grueling. I hope we can give athletes more grace because they’re human first!”
Eight years ago at the Rio Olympics, Manuel captured silver in the 50-meter freestyle – a race where fractions of a second separate competitors at the top and anything more than a one-second differential is a blowout.
While Manuel has continued to have success in that race at World Championships, she also faltered in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she finished 11th in the semifinals and did not reach the final.
After Tokyo, Manuel took a long break from swimming and wasn’t sure she would be part of Team USA at all.
She was diagnosed with overtraining syndrome and had to resist all physical activity for seven months, according to ESPN.
“It feels good to be back here,” Manuel said after her relay triumph. “I didn’t know if I would ever be performing at this level again. So just to kind of have the full-circle moment of being on this relay again from 2021 to now, but just in a happier and healthier place, I think is really special.”
Manuel is not alone in suffering a major disappointment in the pool for Team USA.
Caeleb Dressel did not advance out of the semifinals of the 100-meter butterfly, which brought him to tears.
Ryan Murphy managed a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke but was eliminated in the semifinals of the 200-meter backstroke.
