LONDON — Her dad cried Monday night. So did her mom. Even her coach welled up over what they had just witnessed: Missy Franklin, the new pride of American swimming, becoming an Olympic gold medalist for the first time.
Dick Franklin, Missy’s father, is a big, hulking ex-Canadian football player. He hadn’t cried in a long time, he said. When was the last time?
“The day she was born,” he said.
On that day, 17 years ago, Dick never thought he’d someday stare down from the Olympic Aquatics Centre and see his daughter listen to the U.S. national anthem with a gold medal around her neck. Frankly, neither did his daughter.
Not now. Not after Missy recently finished her junior year at Regis Jesuit High School.
“I can’t even put it into words,” a beaming Franklin said afterward. “It was absolutely indescribable. After thinking about it and imagining it for so long, it doesn’t seem real. It really doesn’t. You think about it so often, you feel like you’re dreaming.
“I still feel like someone needs to pinch me.”
She needed to pinch the other swimmers. Were they dreaming? Or did they really see this 17-year-old girl roar from behind to win the 100-meter backstroke and break the American record with a 58.33 clocking shortly after swimming a 200-meter freestyle semifinal?
Yes, they did. Franklin’s remarkable feat will go down in American swimming lore. She qualified eighth for Tuesday night’s 200 freestyle final, jumped out of the pool, jumped into the diving pool, swam a few laps, jumped out and won a gold medal. All in the space of 15 minutes.
Afterward, a teammate came up to her, gave her a high-five and said the least amount of time he’s had between Olympic swims was 30 minutes.
“I can’t believe you just did that!” Michael Phelps told Franklin.
Neither did her parents.
“We couldn’t believe it,” said her mother, D.A. “The 100 back isn’t even her event. It’s the 200 back. She feels she gets stronger the longer the race. If there was a 400 back, no one would ever touch her.”
Franklin trailed much of the race but surged to the finish to edge Australia’s Emily Seebohm, second at 58.68. Seebohm came in red hot. She had broken the Olympic record in Sunday morning’s prelims with a 58.23 then blazed to a 58.39 in the semis. Franklin, who had the best time in the world entering the meet at 58.85, suddenly was the hunter instead of the hunted. And Seebohm had rested all day.
“That’s Missy,” said her personal coach, Todd Schmitz. “She’s wired a little differently than everybody else.”
Franklin started as if swimming the 200 freestyle was the worst decision of her life. Her start was horrific. After 25 meters, she stood seventh. And Seebohm, in the lead, was cooking.
“You really can’t have those moments in swimming, but swimming is so mental,” Franklin said. “You have to just know you can do it. You have to have faith in yourself. If you have those moments, honestly, you have to keep telling yourself you can do it.”
Always a strong closer, Franklin cut a swath to the first wall. She made the turn in second in 28.82. But Seebohm turned in 28.57.
Fifty meters and a dream remained.
“She’s never going to win a start,” Schmitz said. “She’s 6-1. She doesn’t have the same connection as an Aya Terakawa or the Chinese or whoever it is. I said, ‘Get up and swim. There’s nobody who can swim with you in the race.’
“As soon as she was out at 28, I knew it was game on.”
Franklin, swimming in Lane 5, caught Seebohm, in Lane 4, with about 25 meters left and hit the wall at 58.33, breaking Natalie Coughlin’s 2008 U.S. record of 58.94. Seebohm left the pool in tears as she struggled through the media’s mixed zone afterward.
On the medals stand, Franklin wasn’t in much better shape — but for a different reason.
“I was trying to sing, but I was crying at the same time,” Franklin said. “Then I forgot the words, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I was a huge mess. But just seeing that flag being raised, it was so incredibly unbelievable. I could never have dreamed it would feel like that.”
This is only the beginning. Her parents were whisked off to be interviewed by NBC’s Bob Costas, and an army of potential sponsors and endorsers swooped in to try to get time.
Franklin now has a bronze and a gold, and five events left to swim. The record for most Olympic medals by an American woman is Coughlin’s six in Beijing. Franklin has two more relays, the 200 and 100 freestyle and finally, her best event, the 200 backstroke.
But nothing will ever beat Franklin’s first gold. Someone asked her on the podium where it was. She pulled it out of a pocket and beamed a smile that lit up NBC’s camera.
“Isn’t it pretty?” she said. “I finally got one, finally, after … 17 years.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, jhenderson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnhendersondp
Colorado’s best
How does Missy Franklin’s turn at the London Olympics rank among the best ever from a Colorado athlete?
1. Amy Van Dyken, Atlanta 1996
The first American female to win four gold medals in a single Olympiad. She won the 50-meter freestyle and 100 butterfly, and helped Team USA win the 4X100 freestyle and 4×100 medley relays at age 23.
2. Missy Franklin, London 2012
Already has a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke and a bronze in the 4×100 freestyle relay — and is scheduled to compete in five more events in London as a 17-year-old.
3. Lindsey Vonn, Vancouver 2010
The greatest American female skier had her Olympic breakthrough at age 25 in Vancouver in 2010, when she won downhill gold and super-G bronze.
