Reigning 100m freestyle Olympic champion Simone Manuel stunningly crashed out of the semi-finals of her gold medal event at the US Olympic swimming trials. Manuel made history in Rio de Janeiro when she became the first African American woman to win an individual Olympic swimming gold -- tying for first with Canadian Penny Oleksiak in the prestigious 100m free. World titles followed in 2017 and 2019 but she was shut out of Friday's final with the ninth-fastest time of the semis. Natalie Hinds and Olivia Smoliga finished in a dead-heat in their semi-final to lead the times in 53.55sec. Manuel was fourth in the same semi in 54.17. Abbey Weitzeil, a 4x100m free relay gold medallist in Rio, won the second semi in the third-fastest time of the night of 53.66 and Erika Brown emerged from that heat to claim the No. 8 berth ahead of Manuel in 54.15. Manuel, fighting back tears in a post-race press conference, revealed that after struggling in her training early this year she had been diagnosed in March with over-training syndrome, her symptoms ranging from physical fatigue and lack of progress in her training to depression. After dialing back her training schedule she eventually took three weeks out of the water, returning to the pool on April 17. It was a massive chunk of time to miss so close to the Olympics, and Manuel said she knew she had done everything in her power to get herself ready for trials and a bid to defend her title. "I know I did everything I possibly could to even be here," she said. "And that makes me proud." bb/gph