LONDON —Her dream has come true. Now comes the hard part for Missy Franklin: trying to ride the momentum of her first gold medal through four more races.
It almost worked for a third Olympic medal here Tuesday night.
However, the 17-year-old from Centennial couldn’t capitalize on a rare strong start and faded to fourth in the 200-meter freestyle. She missed a bronze medal by 0.01 of a second. Her teammate, Allison Schmitt, easily won in 1 minute, 53.61 seconds, an Olympic and American record.
Actually, fourth was a good finish for Franklin. She entered the race with the 10th-best time of the year and swam in Lane 8 after barely qualifying Monday night. It also came less than 24 hours after she walked away from the Aquatics Centre with a gold medal in her pocket.
“Definitely, it was really difficult,” Franklin said before being whisked away for a warm-down. “That was a dream come true for me, but knowing I still had four more days of the meet, it’s really hard, but I still have a lot to focus on. Hopefully I can keep doing that.”
Easing up in Monday night’s semifinal helped preserve her energy for her gold medal swim in the 100 backstroke just 14 minutes later. But it also stuck her in Lane 8 on Tuesday, reserved for the slowest qualifier in the race. Franklin had never been the slowest qualifier in a race.
“I’m definitely not used to being on the outside like that, so it’s kind of hard,” she said. “But at the same time, you have to keep from focusing on what everyone else is doing apart from what you’re doing.”
A notoriously poor starter, Franklin led after the first 50 meters, but Schmitt shot past her in the second 50. Then France’s Camille Muffat, who took silver, put Franklin in third before Australia’s Bronte Barratt barely outtouched Franklin at the wall for third in 1:55.81.
Franklin finished in 1:55.82, her best time this year by nearly a second.
Her medal march continues Wednesday with prelims for the 100 freestyle, in which she has the third-fastest time entering the meet: 53.52. Favored is the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, jhenderson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnhendersondp
