Team USA, Team Toyota's Simone Manuel Wins Fifth Olympic Medal at Tokyo 2020

July 29, 2021 by Toyota

At 24 years old, Simone Manuel won her fifth Olympic medal in Tokyo. On Sunday, July 25, she earned a bronze medal as the anchor for the USA women's team in the 4x100m freestyle relay event at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

'I'm always excited and pumped for relays; it's always different when you go behind the blocks, and there is three other people there right with you instead of just going up there alone or having a teammate a couple lanes over or the lane next to you,' said Manuel. 'It's an experience that is amazing, I don't take it lightly, and so, just to be put on a relay, I knew that I wanted to put my best foot forward. These three women had great splits and had great races, and I knew that when I dove in, I had to give it everything I had. And that's exactly what I did.'

Manuel, who won silver in the same event at Rio 2016, scored her second medal in the event as the anchor of the relay team in a fight to the finish and just missed out on earning the silver medal by three one-hundredths of a second. The decorated freestyle swimmer and two-time Olympian is an American record holder in the 50m and 100m and was voted by her peers to be one of the two captains for the U.S. Olympic Women's Swimming Team competing in Tokyo.

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