Simone Manuel fails to advance in 50 free Olympic swimming

By Paul Newberry and Stephen WadeAP Sports WritersNANTERRE, France (AP) — In another disappointment for the American swim team, Simone Manuel was eliminated in the preliminaries of the 50-meter freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 3.United States’ Simone Manuel, who became the first Black female swimmer to claim an individual gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, failed to advance in the 50-meter freestyle during this year’s Olympics. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)Manuel posted the 18th-fastest time in the hectic sprint covering one length of the pool, not good enough to make it to the evening semifinals.The first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming touched in 24.87 seconds, 0.15 out of the time she needed to crack the top 16 and a whopping 1.02 behind the fastest qualifier, Sarah Sjöström of Sweden.Manuel stormed off the deck and right past reporters. Asked to stop for a question, she replied “nope” and kept on going.The United States went into the next-to-last day of the competition with 21 medals but only four golds, a performance that has fallen short of expectations for the world’s dominant swim nation.Several high-profile swimmers have failed to even make...