Stanford teammates Simone Manuel, an American Record holder, and Lia Neal, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist, appeared on MSNBC’s NewsNation on Wednesday morning to talk about their part in a historic 1-2-3 finish at the 2015 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
Manuel took 1st in that race, while Neal took 2nd, and in combination with Florida’s Natalie Hinds made up a podium entirely of black women – believed to be the first such occurrence at any meet of this stature in the United States.
The show aired at 11AM Eastern Time, with the swimmers expected to go on around 11:30 AM Eastern Time. Their full interview can be viewed above.
The full press release from Stanford sent out earlier this week is below.
STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford women’s swimmers Simone Manuel and Lia Neal are set to appear on MSNBC’s NewsNation Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. PT. The pair that finished 1-2 in the 100-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships will be interviewed live by host Tamron Hall.
Manuel and Neal, who are quickly becoming role models in the swimming community, helped Stanford finish in third place at the NCAA Championships March 19-21 in Greensboro, N.C. Manuel, a freshman from Sugar Land, Texas, earned seven All-America honors, including individual national titles in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Neal, a sophomore from Brooklyn, N.Y., finished with six All-America accolades.
The two, along with Florida’s Natalie Hinds, became the first African-American swimmers to finish 1-2-3 in an NCAA championship event in history when they took the top spots in the 100 free. The historic accomplishment will be a main topic of conversation on Wednesday’s show.
NewsNation with Tamron Hall airs weekdays at 8 a.m.-9 a.m. PT. The show features high profile interviews and in-depth coverage of U.S., world and political news.
Video’s telling me about the Boston Marathon bombing verdict, btw.
Same here. I have tried looking all over the msnbc website and could not find the video.
Lia won bronze not gold
prelim relay swimmer maybe?
What a great bit of press for the sport. They seem like great role models!
The best part is the anchor saying:
“I love how you say you just HAPPENED to place top three – no, you worked for that your whole lives! You worked hard for that!”