Manuel first African-American woman to win individual swimming medal; ties with Canadian Penny Oleksiak Once again, Black Girl Magic was on display at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. American swimmer, Simone Manuel, collected a gold medal in the 100m individual freestyle swimming event at the 2016 Summer Olympics on Thursday night. Manuel became the first black woman in Olympic history to earn an individual swimming gold medal. "It means a lot [to be the first black woman to earn gold in the pool]," Manuel said after the race. "I mean, this medal is not just for me. It's for a whole bunch of people that came before me and have been an inspiration to me. Maritza [Correia], Cullen [Jones], and it's for all the people after me, who believe they can't do it. And I just want to be inspiration to others that you can do it." Canada's Penny Oleksiak touched the wall at the exact same moment to tie for gold in one of the Games' most nail-biting finishes. Their winning times were an Olympic record -- 52.70s. Sarah Sjostrom of Swedish took the bronze with a time of 52.99 seconds and Australian Cate Campbell, who was favored to win, came in sixth place clocking in at 53.24 seconds. It must be noted that Manuel is not the first Black woman to win a Summer Olympic swimming medal; that honor goes to Enith Brigitha of the Netherlands. Brigitha won a pair of bronze medals in 1976 in Montreal, Canada. #BlackGirlMagic