Missy Franklin Returning to Train with Todd Schmitz for 2015 World Championships

With the completion of final examinations at UC Berkeley 11 days ago, swimming’s newest professional superstar Missy Franklin has returned home to Colorado to train with Todd Schmitz, multiple sources have told SwimSwam in the last week.

The news was confirmed publicly on Sunday by the Denver Post, who says that Franklin will return to the Colorado Stars program with which she trained through high school, the 2012 Olympic Games, and the 2013 World Championships. She returns home after two years under Olympic head coach Teri McKeever at Cal. Franklin plans to stay there at least through this summer’s World Championships before making a final decision on where to train heading towards Rio.

Franklin is a 5-time Olympic medalist, including 4 golds from the 2012 Games in London. During the 2014 Pan Pac Championships, Franklin battled through a back injury that left a disappointing summer, but she rebounded in 2015 to win three individual titles (200 IM, 200 free, 200 back).

She holds the records for the most golds ever won by a woman at a single long course World Championship (six in 2013) and the most career gold medals at a long course World Championship (nine).

Franklin, who just turned 20 earlier this month, turned pro after just two of a possible four years of college swimming. Her first major endorsement as a pro was for the University of Tennessee’s summer swim camps, though the market expectation is for many more to come after being named the #4 most marketable athlete by SportsPro.

Schmitz was named an assistant coach on the 2012 Olympic Team, and on the strength of Franklin’s accomplishments has earned many other privileges as a coach – including as a key speaker at FINA’s Youth Programme before the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

The Stars’ program is primarily made of athletes aged high school and younger, and no current members of the team have qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials yet.