Soukeyna Pitroipa, Grade 11
UWC Costa Rica
Growing up as a dark-skin African girl, I didn’t have much exposure to girl representations who had my carnation and had a passion for swimming as I have. None of the heroines I admired were struggling like me with hair shrinkage after swimming practices, colorism, and most of their concerns didn’t match with my experience of reality. Sometimes, I even thought of quitting swimming because girls swimming athletes in my country are rare. I didn’t have someone to look up to or aspire to be; it was as if I was diving into dark, cold water with no guidance, lightless, and no bait for having directions. However, the universe decided to illuminate my swimming journey with inspiring swimmer Simone Manuel.
Simone Ashley Manuel is 24 years old black-American Olympic swimmer, specialized in freestyle and a member of the swimming Team USA. She attended Stanford University, where she swam for the Stanford Cardinal from 2014 until 2018. She has an Olympic record and an American record. She is one of the most precise freestyle swimmers I have ever seen, and she has a strong technique that makes her swim forward and faster. It is as if freestyle was made for her; she seems as comfortable while being into the water as if she was lying on a bed. Instead of a bed, it is the waves of the swimming pool she has to lean on to thrive and win the gold medal at the end of the swimming event.
If freestyle was made for her. At 15 years old it was a different thing for me, I didn’t like much swimming freestyle. For me, it was a dumb swimming technique that required too much strength and muscular development, which I didn’t have at that age. I prefer breaststroke, and I feel much more comfortable while swimming this technique. However, seeing Simone swimming freestyle with so much ease and power triggered something in me, it was a light of inspiration. As I saw her moves into the swimming pool, I got inspired by her techniques, her confidence, and I even desired to join her into the swimming pool to feel what she was experiencing at such a powerful state, then I started daydreaming. Dreaming of the day, I would be at her place, swimming freestyle with much more ease, having the strength that she has to thrive under the water, and be one of the top black women at the top world swimming podium. Then, reality reminded me that I was just an African, how can I dream so big to be at the place of an Olympic swimmer?
Well, the fact that she is the first black woman to win an individual gold medal in freestyle at the 2016 Olympic games gave me hope. Indeed, even though she has a different nationality from me, she is still a black woman. She has maybe experienced colorism, kinky hair issues, maybe she understands what it means to thrive in a predominant men sport or what it means to feel tiny and strengthless. And, despite all these struggles and obstacles, she has given her best to have a space between the world swimming champions. Maybe she would understand what I experienced, and maybe she felt some of my struggles at some point in her swimming journey. So many wonderings about herself and her swimming career that I look forward one day to meet her, maybe get some freestyle advice and have a swimming competition against her. Who knows? Hoping and dreaming are priceless and essential in someone’s life, as representation is. Representation is the light, the bait that guides athletes to always look forward to being the best. Furthermore, it provides me the strength to pursue my dreams despite my struggles and fights. Actually, she is working for more equity, equality, and representations in swimming in the US, and I totally admire that she is working for what I always wanted to have as a kid, representation. Simone Manuel was the bait that I needed at some point in my life to boost my motivation to go to swimming practices and direct my pathway through this tough aquatic sport.
I am 17 years old now, I still pursue swimming, and my freestyle techniques are much better than before. Quarantine has prevented me from going to the pool for practices, but thanks to the representation of Simone my inspiration light still shines bright in my heart, and it warms up my passion for swimming.
Simone Ashley Manuel is 24 years old black-American Olympic swimmer, specialized in freestyle and a member of the swimming Team USA. She attended Stanford University, where she swam for the Stanford Cardinal from 2014 until 2018. She has an Olympic record and an American record. She is one of the most precise freestyle swimmers I have ever seen, and she has a strong technique that makes her swim forward and faster. It is as if freestyle was made for her; she seems as comfortable while being into the water as if she was lying on a bed. Instead of a bed, it is the waves of the swimming pool she has to lean on to thrive and win the gold medal at the end of the swimming event.
If freestyle was made for her. At 15 years old it was a different thing for me, I didn’t like much swimming freestyle. For me, it was a dumb swimming technique that required too much strength and muscular development, which I didn’t have at that age. I prefer breaststroke, and I feel much more comfortable while swimming this technique. However, seeing Simone swimming freestyle with so much ease and power triggered something in me, it was a light of inspiration. As I saw her moves into the swimming pool, I got inspired by her techniques, her confidence, and I even desired to join her into the swimming pool to feel what she was experiencing at such a powerful state, then I started daydreaming. Dreaming of the day, I would be at her place, swimming freestyle with much more ease, having the strength that she has to thrive under the water, and be one of the top black women at the top world swimming podium. Then, reality reminded me that I was just an African, how can I dream so big to be at the place of an Olympic swimmer?
Well, the fact that she is the first black woman to win an individual gold medal in freestyle at the 2016 Olympic games gave me hope. Indeed, even though she has a different nationality from me, she is still a black woman. She has maybe experienced colorism, kinky hair issues, maybe she understands what it means to thrive in a predominant men sport or what it means to feel tiny and strengthless. And, despite all these struggles and obstacles, she has given her best to have a space between the world swimming champions. Maybe she would understand what I experienced, and maybe she felt some of my struggles at some point in her swimming journey. So many wonderings about herself and her swimming career that I look forward one day to meet her, maybe get some freestyle advice and have a swimming competition against her. Who knows? Hoping and dreaming are priceless and essential in someone’s life, as representation is. Representation is the light, the bait that guides athletes to always look forward to being the best. Furthermore, it provides me the strength to pursue my dreams despite my struggles and fights. Actually, she is working for more equity, equality, and representations in swimming in the US, and I totally admire that she is working for what I always wanted to have as a kid, representation. Simone Manuel was the bait that I needed at some point in my life to boost my motivation to go to swimming practices and direct my pathway through this tough aquatic sport.
I am 17 years old now, I still pursue swimming, and my freestyle techniques are much better than before. Quarantine has prevented me from going to the pool for practices, but thanks to the representation of Simone my inspiration light still shines bright in my heart, and it warms up my passion for swimming.
Image Citation: https://femcompetitor.com/sensuous-swimmers/
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