American swimmer Simone Manuel, who made history in winning the 100 meter freestyle earlier this week, was looking to add a second individual Olympic gold medal to her collection Saturday night in the 50 meter freestyle.
Manuel fell just two one hundredths of a second short of accomplishing that, as Denmark’s Pernille Blume took gold with a time of 24.07 seconds. Manuel took silver with a time of 24.09 seconds, and now her focus moves to the 4×100 medley relay on which she’ll swim the anchor leg. Blume becomes Denmark’s first Olympic gold medalist in the 50 free, and her time was just two one hundredths of a second away from the world record set by Ranomi Kromowidjojo four years ago.