Missy Franklin from the Colorado Stars broke her own US Open record set last summer in Omaha, Nebraska at the 2012 Olympic Team Trials. She won the 100 backstroke tonight with a time of 58.67, breaking her previous US Open record by .18. Before Franklin, Hayley McGregory held the US Open record with a 59.11 in 2008. Last night, Rachel Bootsma beat McGregory’s 50 backstroke US Open and American record.
Missy Franklin is having a great meet despite all of the talk about the difficulty of the “post olympic year.” Several athletes have mentioned struggling because of this. Several young stars, such as Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky, have maintained their training during their high school seasons and produced good times. Ledecky improved her lifetime best time today in the 400 freestyle and Franklin was within 10ths of her time from the finals of the 100 backstroke at the London Olympic Games, which was 58.33.
Next year, Franklin will be attending Cal Berkeley, swimming under head coach, Teri Mckeever. Hopefully, Mckeever will be able to help Franklin continue her success just as Colorodo Stars head coach, Todd Schmitz, has been able to do. Franklin’s future teammates, Rachel Bootsma and Liz Pelton, have also qualified for the Worlds team in the backstroke events under the direction of McKeever. Franklin is expected to do well training with Boostma and Pelton at Cal Berkeley the next few years.
Women’s 100 back final
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwgXJv4XWTg
If I’m not mistaken, this is actually a screen grab from the puff piece on Missy Franklin that ran during the Olympics on NBC.
STOP! Commenting/judging on looks of these amazing athletes is not only beside the point but sexist. They did not give you permission to put them in a “girls of Olympics” calendar for rating. It’s incredibly inappropriate in 2013!
And before any harsh comment.. I´m not saying they are ugly.. far from that.. but not all swimmers are like Rice ou Jakabos
Or in the interest of equal time, F. Manaudou et Bosquet . Ryk Neethling also had some pretty impressive photo spreads back in the day.
I am not thinking spreads or fluff – just reasonable sport pics that present the subject in a. Way they like. The 2 flashing through above of Larsen & Vollmer look like corpses.
I have met Dana & she is better looking than that by a country mile.
The U.S. Women’s Swim Team NEVER needs Photoshop! They are always the best looking athletes on the Olympic Team, if you ask me, not to mention, poised, smart and wholesome; the kind of women everybody wants their daughter to become when they are grown!
Well that pic is shopped.
And I would think it is hard to say the swimmers are the best looking girls..
If anyone grab a little check on mostly of the Volleyball team and the girls from sports like Polo (not Water Polo) and Tennis they are usually the prettiest on most of the countries..
JG, that seems a little absurd. I think one of the best parts about swimming news stories is seeing the action pictures (before/during/after the race) of the athletes, and that includes the flattering and unflattering pictures for men and women. It’s just a part of the sport!
There are no action pics in swimming . Everyone looks the same .
Are caps, goggles, and heavy breathing after a race un-ladylike, or something? Guys seem to deal with it OK…
Lol heavy breathing !
SwimSwam – please use more of these professional photos for the women. There are way too many unflattering pics in caps & goggles of girls eking out their last ( seeming ) breaths .
These could be part of their CV. Women should be able to largely choose their images – we can deal with a little photoshop!