STANFORD, Calif. -- Stanford women’s swimmer Simone Manuel, who earned seven All-America honors at the NCAA Championships, was featured in USA Swimming’s “20 Questions” Tuesday. The freshman shares thoughts on Stanford, her role in diversity in swimming and taking down American records.
For the full interview conducted by Bob Schaller, click here.
A few quotes from Maneul:
On Stanford…
“It's been really exciting yet challenging at the same time. I have a lot of friends who are very supportive. You can sit down and ask for help. We have tutors. We have professors who are always supportive as long as you communicate early. It's fun to come back to the dorm each evening and focus on school. I think that’s what keeps me balanced and able to swim fast – that I do have distractions.”
On Rowdy Gaines tweeting about African-Americans going 1-2-3 in the 100-yard freestyle…
“Yes, and that seems fitting, because Rowdy is part of that movement with Cullen Jones and the Make a Splash initiative that has done so much good, important work. So to hear it from him and then swimming as an entire community made me, Lia and Natalie realize it was bigger than we initially thought it was, that it was something much bigger than ourselves because we are helping inspire other people to realize they can do this too. And they will, just like we did.”
On her role in diversity in swimming…
“With what just happened this weekend at NCAAs and everyone's reaction to it, I realize this is important, and it is what swimming needs. This is what we need in the sport. Maritza (Correia-McClendon) started this, and Cullen had a big role as well. There were several others, and now a bunch of us are following their lead. It’s also good that swimming is bigger than me and the others, that what we can do now is push it forward and use this avenue to inspire others.”
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