Black Girl Magic Reigned At The Summer Olympics

Despite months of skepticism, the Summer Olympics turned out to be a heart-pounding, heartwarming, and heartbreaking spectacle of sport, strength and sacrifice.  Like millions around the globe, I watched from my couch, trying not to feel like an underachieving beached whale as the world’s best athlete’s swam, sprinted, tumbled, fenced and rowed into Olympic glory.

There was an undeniable star of the games, and it wasn’t Michael Phelps or the Tongan Flagbearer or even Rio’s stunning beaches, it was Black Women. 

America dominated the games, winning 121 medals—the most since the 1908 Summer Games in London—and nearly 20% of those medals were snatched by black women, according to NBCNews.com.  If you really want to crunch the numbers: 7% of the medals were won by black women named Simone alone.

If the world didn’t already know that black women rock, the magnificent amount of melanin atop Olympic podiums and competing for the gold probably drove that point home.  And you still didn't get it, this moment below when Briana Rollins received her Olympic medal in the 100m Hurdles spelled it out plainly for the entire world. 

Brianna Rollins presented gold for 100M hurdles, proclaims 'Black Girls Rock!' on stand #blackgirlmagic #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/w9TAgh4tAS

— Todd Johnson (@rantoddj) August 19, 2016

Here are just some of the black girls who rocked the summer games…

Photo Credits: bustle.com, nbcolympics.com, npr.org, chicagotribune.com, upi.com, si.com, usatoday.com, espn.com, bet.com, bleacherreport.com