Five-time Olympic medalist Simone Manuel was eliminated in the preliminaries of the 50-meter freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Manuel, the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming, posted the 18th fastest time in the hectic sprint over one length in the pool. It was not good enough to make it to the evening semifinals.
Manuel’s time of 24.87 seconds was a whopping 1.02 behind the fastest qualifier, Sarah Sjöström of Sweden.
After the race, Manuel — who won silver in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay earlier in the tournament — stormed off the deck and right past reporters. Asked to stop for a question, she replied “nope” and kept going.
The finish was the latest disappointment for the American swim team, who went into the next-to-last day of the competition with 21 medals but only four golds. It’s a performance that has fallen short of expectations for the world’s dominant swim nation.
Several high-profile swimmers have failed to even make the finals in some of their best events.
Caeleb Dressel, a star of the Tokyo Olympics with five gold medals, was knocked out in the semis of the 100 butterfly and broke down in tears after leaving the deck.
Ryan Murphy, a longtime stalwart in the backstroke, managed a bronze in the 100 back and was knocked out in the semis of the 200 — far short of his goal to reclaim the titles he swept at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
