Houston Sports - Simone Manuel

Simone Manuel

Born: August 2, 1996

Sport: Swimming (7 world records, 6-time individual NCAA National Champion, 2-time team NCAA National Champion, 7-time Olympic medalist: 2 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze)

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics wrapped up today, and it was a very successful event for the host nation of Italy, while also being record-setting for Team USA and the overall medal count winner, Norway.  Among the highlights were United States gold medals over Canada in men's and women's hockey, with the guys becoming Olympic champions on the 46th anniversary of the famed Miracle on Ice game in Lake Placid, NY, over a heavily-favored Soviet team.  Shout out to the only Texan included on either winning roster: Hannah Bilka of Coppell, TX!  At my house we celebrated the winter Olympic spirit by watching both Cool Runnings and Miracle.  But in keeping with our focus on Houston-based Olympians we'll turn the spotlight this week to a recent champion who is still actively training, and therefore whose story may not yet be complete.  By the time Simone Manuel eventually steps out of the pool for the last time, she'll be remembered as one of the great swimmers of all time.  So let's find out a bit more about a girl from the Houston suburbs who has reached the Olympic podium on three continents.

The southwest Houston neighborhood where Manuel grew up

Born in the city of Sugar Land, TX, Simone Manuel was the third child and only daughter of Marc and Sharron Manuel.  Both parents had been athletes, with Marc playing basketball at Xavier University in his native state of Louisiana and Sharron competing in volleyball and basketball throughout high school.  They signed Simone up for swim lessons at the age of four so that she would be safe around bodies of water, but the young girl showed off her affinity for the pool by swimming all the way across it during just her second lesson.  Simone was involved in various athletics while growing up, including soccer, basketball, and volleyball, but also displayed an artistic side with clarinet and dance.  But it was swimming where her talents really stood out, and she was competing by the age of nine and joined the local First Colony Swim Team at the age of 11.  While still attending nearby Austin High School, Manuel competed in her first Olympic trials in advance of the 2012 London games, placing in the top 20 for both the 50 meter and 100 meter freestyle events.  Upon graduating from high school in 2014 Manuel already had an impressive resume of international competition victories and plenty of options for where to go to college.  With both older brothers already playing college basketball for schools in Texas and Oklahoma, Simone instead decided to travel west to attend Stanford University and compete on their nationally-recognized swim team.

It didn't take long after enrolling for Simone Manuel to make her mark at Stanford, as she set school records for freestyle in the 50, 100, and 200 meter distances as well as a NCAA and American record for the 100 meter freestyle while still a freshman.  In 2015, Manuel won her first two NCAA championships as an individual, just missing a third when she placed second in the 200 meter distance.  With the 2016 Olympics on the horizon, she took a redshirt year to focus on training and qualifying for Rio de Janeiro.  Manuel placed second in both the 50 and 100 meter freestyle trials, but a seventh-place finish in the 200m race was not good enough to qualify.  Once the team reached Brazil, however, Manuel was chosen to participate in the 4x100m medley and freestyle relay.  In a sport where hundredths of a second can make the difference between gold and leaving without a medal, Manuel had just enough to become a champion twice while also coming in second place twice.  Both gold medal efforts were historic as well, with her tie for gold in the 100m freestyle making her the first African American swimmer to stand atop the podium, while her team won in the 4x100m medley was America's 1000th summer Olympic gold medal of all time.  Manuel finished two hundredths behind the winner in the 50m freestyle race, and her future Stanford Cardinal teammate Katie Ledecky joined Manuel in an American record 4x100m freestyle time that fell short of the Australian team's world record. 

Simone Manuel returned to college as a champion, but 2017 would provide more wins for her, both personally and athletically.  She started dating Denzel Franklin, a fellow student she had met during orientation at Stanford, and the couple eventually got married in 2023.  She also helped guide the Cardinal to a national championship, their first in 19 years, while she was still just 20 years old.  She began to rack up impressive results at more international events, including both the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, while also helping Stanford repeat as national champions in back-to-back years.  In 2018 she signed an endorsement deal with TYR Sport and officially became a professional swimmer.  Her contract was notable for being the first professional sports endorsement to include an inclusion rider that compels the company to make efforts to reach out to minorities.  Among with her role with the Make A Splash organization, it represented Manuel's effort to combat the fear of water that she has described as a generational cycle for Black and Hispanic communities.  By all accounts, Manuel was a favorite to impress at the 2020 Olympics until the Covid pandemic struck, shutting down her school, her pool, and he training plans.  While most of the Stanford team left the area, Manuel and Ledecky stayed put and managed to find a local couple who allowed them to train in their backyard Olympic-length pool.  The Tokyo games were postponed until 2021, and although Manuel only qualified for the 50m freestyle she was again placed on the freestyle relay team.  Showing the effects from overtraining syndrome, her times were well below her standards and the only medal he second Olympic effort produced was bronze in that team event.

Although Simone Manuel was no stranger to overcoming obstacles, being forced to stop training for months while having to face a lack of empathy from fans and critics alike nearly caused her to retire from competitive swimming.  Describing her journey as starting with being faithful to God's call on her life, it resulted in a healing that allowed her to fall in love again with her sport.  Alongside her new husband and a new swim coach, Manuel completed her recovery and made the most of an abbreviated time frame to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.  She did not reach the medal stand in any individual events but joined both the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle teams to win silver medals, falling to the favored Australian teams each time.  As mentioned before, Simone Manuel continues to train for future events and will likely be there when Olympic trials are held for the 2028 LA games.  In the meanwhile she'll continue to advocate for her sport and her community through the Simone Manuel Foundation, and perhaps in a few years we'll start to see her name added to some of those sports halls of fame that honor athletes with her level of impact and success. 

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