Nearly two years ago, five-time Olympic champ and eleven-time World champ Missy Franklin of the United States announced her retirement from competitive swimming at the age of 23.
Since then, Franklin has been active on the philanthropic front, as a USA Swimming Foundation ambassador and a Laureus Academy member, among other roles. However, her time in the pool is now characterized by merely short stints here and there, which is as much as her injured body can handle in retirement.
Speaking recently to People Magazine, Franklin says, “I mean, my shoulders are in so much pain that I can maybe hop in the pool and swim easy for 20, 30 minutes, but that’s about as much as my old broken shoulders can handle at this point.”
After unequivocally declaring “absolutely not” when asked if returning to competitive swimming was in her future, Franklin said, “I kind of feel like I’ve given everything I possibly could to the sport and now it’s to do good outside of the water.
“I never got the second shoulder surgery that I needed and I just — I don’t really see getting back in the water at this point in my life being the best thing for my physical or my mental health.”
During the years of 2012 to 2013, Franklin was one of the most dominant female swimmers in history, claiming four gold medals and a bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games. She followed that up with a record six gold medals in seven events at the 2013 World Championships.
However, back spasms threw her journey off course at the 2014 Pana Pacific Championships, with her 2015 World Championships performance slipping to an individual silver and bronze, with an additional three relay medals. Franklin made the 2016 U.S. Olympic team but didn’t medal individually. She took gold with the 4×200 free relay as a prelims swimmer.
Missy Franklin is a great champion and a wonderful person. These traits will not end with her swimming career. She’s destined for even greater things!
She did a local clinic a few years back and seemed to be a wonderful person and an inspiration to the girls–wish her the best
Our local swim team went to see Touch the Wall when it came out in 2014. Who knew that she’d already reached the pinnacle of her career by the time it came out. What stuck with me was the drudgery of 4am practices every morning–didn’t look to be a whole lot of fun. Sad that her career was over so quickly due to injuries, must be really disappointing for her.
Swimming sucks. It’s dreadful, cumbersome, and mind numbing torture. Let’s get real folks. She is just saying and doing what we all do with this sport. Only, she is famous and we are not.
All support for you and your next steps, Miss! You had a tremendous career and are a role model to so many. Thank you for your role in our sport! Wishing you health and happiness
1:39.10 Still blows my mind. Nobody can take that away from her
Missy, you were and are a great inspiration to ALL of our kids 2 boys and 4 of our girls who swam. Some even swam against you. And lost of course. But you were always smiling and laughing and a true great mentor in the sport. We met your parents many times and sat with them at EPIC swim center when you were swimming. Your parents are great also, but you already know that! You have done so much for the sport and even more for swimming in Colorado. One of my son’s is now a coach for STARS and he watched you swim as he was growing up. I am sorry you have given so much of your body… Read more »
This may not be a popular take, but her coaches probably bear some responsibility for this. It’s not normal for world class swimmers in the prime of life to barely be able to swim.
In her 30 minutes she would cover quite a lot even at cruise pace . A normal fit person only needs 3x 30 mins a week . I
Don’t be sad. Missy is doing great, everyone! She’s married to “The Man”, “The Myth” and “The Legend” Hayes Johnson, she’s got a great dog and an awesome life in Colorado.
What kind of dog ? Mixed breed is good too . I love dogs .
It is a Bernese Mountain Dog and it is gorgeous!
Nice I like to see a dog in an environment similar to what it was bred for . My mental image of Missy will be her happily rolljng around in the snow with her gorgeous big dog .