Simone Manuel Announces More Big News: She’s Engaged!

Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel has dropped more big news on Monday, revealing on Instagram her engagement to boyfriend Denzel Franklin.

The news comes after earlier in the day, she unveiled that she would be joining the pro group at Arizona State following a long training and competition break since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The 26-year old Manuel, who doesn’t post often about her relationship on social media, is engaged to Franklin, who played free safety on the Stanford football team while Manuel was a member of the school’s swimming & diving program. Franklin majored in Urban Studies at Stanford and currently works as an engineer.

Manuel has been out of competition since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last summer, where she competed in the U.S. women’s 4×100 free relay and the individual women’s 50 free. Her journey to get onto the Olympic Team was a tenuous one, as Manuel revealed at the U.S. Olympic Trials last June that she had been diagnosed with Overtraining Syndrome, a condition in which the training one is doing outpaces their body’s ability to recover. OTS can have long-lasting effects, and since the announcement, Manuel has pulled back on her training and step away from competition since then.

Manuel has won 5 Olympic medals in her career. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she won gold in the women’s 100 free and 4×100 medley relay, as well as silver in the 50 free and 4×100 free relay. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last summer, Manuel helped the American squad to a bronze medal in the women’s 4×100 free relay.

Manuel has also won 16 LC World Championships medals, 11 of which were gold. She currently holds the American Records in the women’s LCM 50 free (23.97) and 100 free (52.04). Manuel also currently holds the World Record in the women’s LCM 4×100 medley relay, where she provided a blistering 51.86 anchor split.