American 16-year old Missy Franklin won the women’s 200 backstroke in 2:05.1, which is an almost unfathomable time for a swimmer that young, to win her 2nd gold (and 3rd overall) medal in this meet. That breaks her own American Record that she set in prelims of 2:05.90.
Now, over the course of two swims, Franklin has lowered the old American Record, previous held by Margaret Hoelzer at 2:06.09, by almost a full second. She’s lowered Elizabeth Beisel’s old 15-16 National Age Group Record by even more than that, as Beisel swam a 2:06.39 at the Rome World Championships.
Now, only two swims in history have been faster than Franklin’s, both of which were done in a rubber suit in Rome: a 2:04.94 from Anastasia Zueva of Russia and a 2:04.81 from Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.
Also notable in this race, the 2nd-4th swimmers took down their respective National Records, despite not being close to Franklin.
Belinda Hocking: 2:06.06 (old mark Belinda Hocking, 2:06.88, – 2011 Australian Nationals)
Sharon van Rouwendaal: 2:07.78 (old mark Femke Heemsekerk, 2:09.14 – 2011 French Nationals)
Daryna Zevina: 2:07.82 (old mark Daryna Zevina, 2:10.08 – 2009 Prague)
Click here to watch Missy Franklin’s full 200 backstroke swim on Universal Sports.
Hey Braden, all along you have been saying that Missy will swim in college. I think this past week might be a game changer. After 2012 I have a feeling she will be the face of USA swimming and the piles of money at the front door will be hard to ignore. This plus the fact that LCM is not the same as SCY for backstrokers, and if she has any weakness, it’s her turns.
Well, that’s been the words of her and her coach, but I could see London changhing her mind…but I think the money would have to be significant. It would have to be more than the annual cost of a full-ride to wherever she wants to go, room, board, enough to cover training costs, plus some. I think we’re looking at maybe 100k a year, at least, and she might want it all up front to protect against injury/a total dropoff. There’s money to be had in swimming marketing, but I don’t know if there’s that much money to be had for a 17-year old female, especially until FINA goes back to the full-body suits in 2013 (which looks inevitable at… Read more »
Congrats to Missy, but I was most impressed by Sharon van Rouwendaal’s bronze. She improved her PB in 3 races by more than 3 seconds and could seriously challenge Franklin next year.
Is she swimming Nationals?! Hold your breaths…
Cayley – yep, Missy is swimming Nationals. Most are (Phelps, Coughlin aren’t).
http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/featured/nationals-entered-swimmers-not-psych-sheets-released/
the most impressive swim was her last: 52.69 free split to anchor the medley relay to gold !
It is probably a blessing in disguise that a) Franklin wasn’t able to swim more events here and b) that she remains just out of reach of the WR. Much less pressure going into Olympic Trials/Games.
even without any improvement in missy’s technique cant see this record lasting too much longer !