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Simone Manuel Becomes First African-American Woman to Win Gold

Yet another Stanford athlete breaking barriers and making history.

Clive Rose/Getty Images

Simone Manuel made history tonight, becoming the first African-American woman to win a medal in an individual swimming event. Her gold medal-tying time (along with Canada's Penny Oleksiak) of 52.7 seconds seconds in the 100 meter freestyle also set an Olympic record.

With the win, Simone Manuel ended a 32-year drought since the last time an American swimmer (Nancy Hogshead, 1984) won the 100 freestyle.

If Stanford were a country, its four events with gold medals would tie for seventh-best in the world; the only countries with more gold medals than Stanford are: the US (16), China (11), Japan (7), Australia (5), South Korea (5), and Hungary (5). Stanford is also tied for the tenth-best "country" in total medals.