Missy Franklin's new commercial will tug at your heartstrings

Need more info. Is this an SEC school?

 

You tell me this ain't real, you heathen.

 

Decorated swimmer Missy Franklin retires at 23

A real shame. Great ambassador for the sport.

 

That's too bad. She did the impossible: turned Colorado high school swim meets into something someone cared about.

I know she skipped out on cashing in right after the 2012 Olympics to go to school. I hope she was still able to make some money along the way. Her story is a fine example of why I never fault a college kid for turning pro earlier than my gut tells me he or she should.

 

Didn't she get gold-medal bonuses, like Katie Ledecky? She got like $250,000 and the NCAA still allowed her to compete at Stanford. Of course, at the same time if Christian McCaffrey would have received a turkey sandwich and a Pepsi from a booster, he would have been declared ineligible.

 

NBC needs to get her on TV ASAP. At the very least, they should have her going halfsies with Rowdy Gaines doing the women's events in Tokyo (in a manner similar to how they'd have Carol Lewis in the booth for women's track events for a while).

 

She swam at Cal. People actually went to Pac-12 swim meets when she was competing.

 

Yes, when Franklin (Cal) and Ledecky (Stanford) swam in meets at Microville Tech, they actually sold tickets and had overflow crowds at the venues. Cal made Franklin available to the media and she also spoke at an alumni gathering after the meet. Stanford didn't make Ledecky available for interviews and had the gall to tell the home team how to run its own meet and tried to get the seating re-arranged so fans couldn't "get too close" to Ledecky. Suggestions that were ignored, of course, and the meet went off as usual, without a hitch.

 

Didn't Ledecky talk a bunch of shit about Franklin before their last Olympics together? Basically said Franklin wasn't shit — and then went out and backed it up in the pool.

 

I don't know, I have trouble thinking this is a shame. She had a great swimming career, and really, had probably accomplished most, if not all, of what she would've accomplished by waiting until after the 2020 Olympics to retire. She's 23 now, will be 25 then, and would likely just be trying, probably unsuccessfully, to fend off the next great 15-, 16- or 17-year-old like the one she was.

Now, she just moves on with her life, as she probably really wanted to do anyway. And she's still achieved more, experienced more and done more than most people do...in their whole life.

There are seasons in life. This one, from a competitive standpoint, was over, and she's smart and right to realize it.

I agree that she'd be great as a commentator on TV, and I'd bet that's where she already knows she's headed when she says swimming will remain a part of her life, but just in a different way.

 

Swimming burns up young women at an incredibly fast rate, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin notwithstanding.

I spent several years covering (along with Phelps) Katie Hoff, who held the world record in both the IMs at one point. Franklin was the better swimmer but the way their bodies broke down and rendered them a shadow of their former selves was eerily similar. Anita Nall was a similar story. There are a ton of others. Figure skating and gymnastics athletes getting bounced from the sport after they’re teens always made sense because it’s hard to twirl as your body matures and put on natural weight. But swimming, I think they just grind the gears pushing the limits until something breaks.