USA Swimming star Missy Franklin wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, reflecting on her Rio disappointment and opening up about her surrogate mother. Franklin’s mother found out that she wasn’t able to have children when she was young, so her parents decided on surrogacy when they were ready to start a family. Franklin says her parents have always been open about the circumstances of her birth, and they’ve come to view her surrogate mother as a special family friend.
In the article, she also talks about her upbringing, and how close she is with her parents. They moved to Colorado 3 months after she was born, and her parents first took her to swim lessons when she was 6 months old. They supported her when she started swimming year-round at 7 years old, and continued to do so as she developed into the world class swimmer she is today.
Franklin went on to reflect on Rio, sharing her disappointment about not making finals in her individual events. She said she fely empty, even though she came home with a relay gold. But the worst part, she said, was that the failure happened in front of billions of people.
“I had to come to grips with failure, and it wasn’t an easy time. I had to find a way to deal with the disappointment. What’s worse, the failure had occurred in front of billions of people.”
Instead of trying to get past the Rio experience, Franklin will use the experience to make herself a better athlete and person. She’s now back in training at the University of California, with the goal of falling in love with the sport again.
Very Nice Surrogacy Information
I don’t think Missy’s increasingly slower times across all LCM events since 2014 can be attributed only to back spasm in 2014 or mental burn-outs.
My gut instincts tells me that MIssy’s post-puberty physical changes contributed significantly in the decline. At the age of 15 to 17, Missy had the great power to weight ratio; tall, light and with physical body shape great for streamlining swimming high on the water with oversized flippers. Male swimmers don’t experience physical changes as much.
I feel her trials performance where she qualified in two individual events was the triumph of the power of mind over physical or technical decline.
If my hypothesis is proven true, Missy is not the first or the… Read more »
” triumph of the power of mind ” – it looks like the perfect title for the next book of Missy Franklin. The only problem is that it can be easily confused with the “Triumph des Willens” of Leni Riefenstahl.
Also it explicitly suggests that she was “out of her mind” in Rio.
Facing a strong competition to be on Olympic team Leah Smith made OT the major meet of the season and it perfectly explains that after setting PBs at 200, 400 and 800 at trials she was slower in Rio. But the size of her step back was statistically reasonable and wasn’t even close to the surprise of Missy Franklin. If to remember that times shown… Read more »
Interesting. How would you explain someone like Molly Hannis or Lilly King, who do not have narrow “teen” bodies? Short axis stroke?
Those girls have had time to adjust to a more muscular frame while Missy seems to have made a quick increase in strength and muscle mass since starting college. It also affects everyone differently and the muscle/fat and strength/bodyweight ratios are huge in terms of buoyancy and speed. It’s especially hard for girls since bodies develop so differently and can undergo huge changes that are very difficult to adjust to.
GO MISSY! Smile, work hard & have fun! XOXO
Wish I could give this 100 upvotes.
If you think it makes some sense than respond on this comment and I will teach you how to do it..
Go Missy and do whatever your heart tells you. Whatever comes from continuing naturally hopefully Tokyo, it is that when your in your forties and can look back and say I gave it another shot and don’t have to say would have or could have as so many who take the other way out. These next 3 and a half years could be the greatest experience and will add to your life ahead of you.
I thought that professional swimmer is the person who competitively swims for living. How naive I was. It is all about making movies , writing books, posting articles, riding F15, and talking, talking, talking…. The only waves she had been making since she became professional are media waves.
Missy’s decline isnt abnormal. Look at her London co-stars, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Ye Shiwen. They both still finaled in Rio, but were nowhere near their double-gold winnning times from 4 years ago. That doesnt mean its impossible for her to start getting faster again after a few bad years. Sjostrom and Hosszu were able to. Why not Missy?
Phelps & Ledecky were the only Olympic Gold medal defenders . So it takes the 2 swimmings best ever to do this .Simply MF is not of that rank . Accept reality .
Btw no one has any tears for Rute or Shiwen or Chad .
I really hope we are out of this moronic self flagellation route to self redemption thing . Everyone is only as good as their last race & as such , no excuses are necessary .
Dear, G.I.N.A it was a very good evaluation of what MF’s case actually is. But I think that it would be unfair to say only that there is nothing extraordinary with Missy Franklin’s situation and that we can find plenty of cases like this in the modern or more ancient history of competitive swimming. There is still some mystery about Missy that I cannot find natural explanation. How was it possible to drop so much in performance at her favorite swimming disciplines just in the period of a few weeks. That is 1.5 sec at 200 free and almost 2sec at 200back compare to her times shown at OT. It wasn’t just a random fluctuation of a single race. She… Read more »
Pickles – I’ll share my current fave sport history . 15 year old Russian Elena Eremia ( the current European Junior AA Champion ) began her career at 3 in rhythmic gymnastics . Howeve she was asked to leave at 4 because she was too fat .
Ain’t that fantastic! I bet she had a more natural elegant reaction at 4 than MF at 20 . Maybe she went home & did some crayon drawing about one door closing & another opening . The ousting action was the right one for she did not achieve the height required of Rhythmic girls & now she is on the senior Russia team set for stardom ( with some luck with injuries )… Read more »
This also brings up the timing aspect of sport ..The FIG has moved to make artistic gym less a Simone Biles / US power game & tried to bring back the magic of the pre 2004 code. Tiny Elena has entered senior ranks just at the right time – one year earlier & she would have not been comprtitive .
Note that Ms. Franklin is back training at Berkeley but not with Teri McKeever. She is training with the great Dave Durden. Doubt that being under McKeever control would let Ms. Franklin fall back in love with swimming. Hope she regains the joy of swimming as she is a great swimmer. Just re watch the tapes from London.
First It’s really hard to compare swimmers , they are all talented but Anthony Irvin and Dara are sprinters and naturals! It doesn’t take Anthony much work to do what he does, and Dara has been fast all her life! David Plummer is a combination or talent and hard work. Missy we didn’t get to see what she is I am leaning towards talent and hard work, it’s really hard to keep that up for years, but I hope she finds her way back!