LONDON —When a 17-year-old girl from Colorado finds a dream come true, where does she put it? “In my pocket,” Missy Franklin said Monday night, reaching to show off a gold medal won with a stunning comeback in the 100-meter backstroke at the Summer Olympics. “Isn’t it pretty?”
With a victorious touch of the pool wall, Franklin morphed from a teenager hyped as the future of U.S. swimming to a bona fide Olympic legend. How quickly can a young life change forever?
“Thirteen minutes and 55 seconds. I timed it,” said coach Todd Schmitz, who has put a stopwatch to nearly every lap of Franklin’s swimming career since she was 7 years old.
A lucky 13 minutes and change was all Franklin needed to record a rally so incredible it would do John Elway proud. In less time than it takes most people to shower, Franklin pulled off a feat in the water so bold it had Olympic icon Michael Phelps shaking his head. “I can’t believe Missy just did that,” Phelps said. “She’s a force.”
Franklin did more than win gold. Before swimming the race of her life, the Regis Jesuit High School senior broke every rule in the book of muscle recovery by trying to swim two Olympic races with less than 14 minutes of rest. She risked embarrassment in front of 17,500 witnesses at the Aquatics Centre. Heck, she made her mother fret.
“I didn’t know if she was going to be able to do these two swims without blowing up,” D.A. Franklin confessed from her seat in Section 311 of the arena.
Franklin had the audacity to take on Australian sensation Emily Seebohm, who had set an Olympic record during the 100 back preliminary heats, 13 minutes and 55 seconds after swimming the 200-meter freestyle in the same pool. That was asking for double trouble. It’s something you attempt during a neighborhood meet as a third-grader, not against the planet’s elite athletes.
“I read a lot of stories that suggested I was the stupidest coach in the world for trying this,” Schmitz said. “But I looked at Missy at the start of the night and said, ‘Think of it this way: It’s less than three minutes of racing. Have fun.’ “
In a sport where every split second counts, being uptight is a waste of time. Here’s a peek behind Franklin’s ever-present smile for a check of her true pulse rate on a day filled with pressure.
As Big Ben struck 4 o’clock on a London afternoon, Franklin tapped a text message on her cellphone, just to tell Mom not to worry.
The text from Missy read: “I’m very excited. I’m in a very good place mentally.”
Tight families speak in their own shorthand.
D.A. wrote back to her daughter: “Well, yep. That’s my baby.”
Love doesn’t need many keystrokes.
Nervous? Prior to her first race of the night, Franklin and teammate Allison Schmitt were dancing to blaring music backstage at the Olympic pool.
In the semifinals of the 200 free, Franklin took it so casually she almost messed up, needing a final drive to the wall to grab the eighth and last spot for the championship round. “All I wanted was a lane,” said Franklin, perplexed why anybody else would panic.
When she hopped out of the water at 7:40 p.m., Schmitz stopped worrying after a single look. The slow, steady breathing of his young swimmer indicated a heart rate of 150, at least 25 percent slower than if Franklin had overtaxed her body.
One huge logistical problem remained, though. The warm-down pool where swimmers combat lactic acid was a seven-minute walk away. Franklin didn’t have time for a stroll before working out the kinks. So she slipped into the deep blue water of the diving well only a few feet from where the meet raged on amid the din of screaming fans.
As the digital clock on the pool deck struck 7:53, Franklin was calmly ready to take her mark in Lane 5 for the 100 back. It’s a race down and back. One turn. Seebohm hit the far wall first. But, as Schmitz likes to say, then it’s “game on.”
Like Elway in the fourth quarter, Franklin gets better in the clutch. She churned past Seebohm in the final 15 meters. Touched the finish with a personal best of 58.33 seconds. Checked the scoreboard to make sure it was real. And fell backward in disbelief.
“If you’re talking about an athlete like Phelps or Elway, you’re talking about an athlete that’s not afraid to go beyond,” U.S. swim coach Gregg Troy said. “There are a lot of glass ceilings in sport. And it takes a rare athlete to keep breaking them. Missy can.”
Franklin had won a dream to put in her pocket. Pure gold is a girl’s best friend.
“I finally got one. Finally … after 17 years,” Franklin said, laughing at herself.
Before pulling off an upset in the backstroke, Franklin had already claimed a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Two races down, five to go. NBC itching to make her a star across America. The British press was already asking when she might cash in and turn pro. It’s a heavy-duty schedule ahead.
“Yeah,” deadpanned D.A. Franklin with humor drier than a martini. “We get back to Colorado on Aug. 13. School registration is the 14th.”
It should make for some interesting conversation in the Regis hallways.
So, Missy, what did you do on your summer vacation?
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053, mkiszla@denverpost.com or twitter.com/markkiszla
