Simone(s)

Last night was a great night for anyone named Simone from Houston at the Olympics. In case you somehow missed it, Simone Manuel tied for the gold in the women's 100m free and Simone Biles finished the formality of becoming Olympic all-around champion.

If you didn't know, both Simones are from the Houston area! Manuel is my hometown girl from Sugar Land, while Biles lives in Spring. Both were amazing performances and for sure brought tears to my eyes. Pretty awesome night for the Bayou City!

Manuel was not considered a favorite in her race but it's also not a surprise that she won. Sprints like this are toss ups and it was a stacked field. All the focus was on Australia's Campbell sisters and neither one came away with a medal. Manuel really got the job done in the last 50m, chasing down Cate Campbell and touching the wall at the same time as Canada's Penny Oleksiak. Her reaction was priceless. Such a great Olympic moment. I loved her interview afterwards as well.

Manuel is the first woman of color to win an individual gold in swimming. She said this win isn't just for her but for all the other swimmers of color to come before her that paved the way. The tears coming down her face during her medal ceremony were genuine and you couldn't help but tear up as well. She made me cry multiple times last night. I hope she gets to celebrate with as many Shipley do-nuts as her heart desires!

She already has a silver as a member of the 4x100 free relay team earlier in these games and has two more shots at medals. A likely gold as a member of the 4x100 individual medley relay and the 50m free. Both are Saturday night.

There was never any question Biles would win the all-around. If you didn't know ahead of the NBC coverage what happened, like me, you could have let them trick you into thinking it was a close competition. But it never was. Yes, Biles was not in the lead after the second rotation but that was after her "worst" event with her two best left. She easily won. How easy? Her margin of victory was larger than the margin of victory for the last nine all-around champions...combined!

What's amazing is not just that she won. It's that she won with that much pressure on her and still delivered four (close to) perfect routines. That's why she is "the best ever."

Congrats, Simone(s)! You've done Houston, Texas and USA proud!