In another disappointment for the U.S. swim team, Simone Manuel was eliminated in the preliminaries of the 50-meter freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Manuel recorded the 18th fastest time in the frenetic sprint over one length of the pool, not enough to reach the semi-finals that evening.
The first black woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming, she did so in 24.87 seconds, 0.15 seconds off the time she needed to place in the top 16 and a whopping 1.02 seconds behind the fastest qualifier, Sarah Sjöström of Sweden.
Manuel stormed off the deck and walked past the reporters. When they asked her to stop for a question, she replied “no” and continued on.
The United States entered the penultimate day of competition with 21 medals and only four gold, a performance that fell short of expectations for the world's dominant swimming nation.
Several high-profile swimmers have failed to even reach the finals in some of their best events.
Caeleb Dressel, star of the Tokyo Olympics with five gold medals, was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100-meter butterfly and broke down in tears after leaving the track.
Backstroke veteran Ryan Murphy took bronze in the 100m backstroke and was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 200m, a long way from his goal of regaining the titles he swept at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
