She won a silver medal as part of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay along with Abbey Weitzeil, Dana Vollmer, and Katie Ledecky. She tied with Penny Oleksiak of Canada for the gold medal in the 100 m freestyle, both setting an Olympic record of 52.70. Manuel is the first African-American woman to win a gold medal in an individual swimming event and is also said to be the first black woman to achieve this. She later won silver in the 50-meter freestyle event and gold in the 4x100-meter medley relay.