On the first day of competition at the Rio Olympics, Simone Manuel won silver in the women's 400-meter freestyle relay.

Manuel and her teammates, Katie Ledecky, Abbey Weitzeil, and Dana Vollmere finished the race in 3:31.89, with the Stanford student swimming the leadoff leg of the race in 53.36.

Despite an impressive showing from the lead and anchor legs, the women couldn't overcome the heavily favored Australian team which set a world record in 3:30.65.

Sean M. Haffey

This is the 20-year-old's first trip to the Games, and she still has a couple more chances to score medals in the 100-meter freestyle, in which she holds the American record, on Wednesday and the 50-meter freestyle on Friday.

Manuel and U.S. Swimming teammate Lia Neal are making history this year as the first two Black women to represent the U.S. together at the Olympics.


Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images

Gymnasts Simone Biles, 19, and Gabby Douglas, 20, are racing the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Biles is the reigning world champion and Douglas holds the Olympic all-around title. Though it would seem like the two would have a friendly rivalry the girls shut that down when talking to Natalie Morales on The Today Show.

Though the final U.S. gymnastics team isn't set, these girls are almost certainly shoe-ins. Simone just won her first competition of the season by an impressive margin.



Douglas won two in a row at the start of the season, but they have yet to compete against each other.

When asked if the girls are rivals as well as teammates, Biles quickly shut the talk down with, "Not really."

Douglas chimed in, "We're not catty like that."

Their answers are refreshing. It's still a rarity to see two Black women athletes dominate sports like gymnastics, so seeing them both thrive is a treat.

18-Year-Old gymnast Simone Biles won the U.S. women’s gymnastics championship for the third time in a row at the 2015 P&G Gymnastics Championships at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.