In another disappointment for the US swimming team, Simone Manuel was eliminated in the preliminary rounds of the 50-meter freestyle on Saturday at the Paris Olympics.
Manuel set the 18th fastest time in the frantic one-length sprint across the pool, but was not good enough to reach the evening’s semi-finals.
The first black woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming did so in 24.87 seconds, 0.15 seconds off the time it took her to reach the top 16 and a full 1.02 seconds behind the fastest qualifier, Sarah Sjöström of Sweden.
Manuel left the deck and walked past reporters without answering questions. When asked to stop, she said “no” and kept walking.
The United States entered the penultimate day of competition with 21 medals and only four golds, a performance that fell short of expectations for the world’s largest swimming nation.
Several well-known swimmers failed to reach the finals in some of their best individual events.
Caeleb Dressel, a star athlete at the Tokyo Olympics with five gold medals, was knocked out in the semi-finals of the 100-meter butterfly and burst into tears as he stepped off the ground.
Longtime backstroke stalwart Ryan Murphy won bronze in the 100m backstroke and was knocked out in the semi-finals of the 200m, missing out on his goal of regaining the titles he won at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.