In a mini auto-biography of her life since London, the always-entertaining Allison Schmitt has written a blog for ESPN-W’s ‘Athlete’s Life” section.
For the first time, Schmitt addressed candidly, and humorously, what most of us have seen in the results since her since a three-gold-medal performance in London.
Schmitt, who trains with the most famous of the ‘comeback kids’ Michael Phelps at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, said that this fall after missing the World Championships team and while finishing her degree at Georgia, she was only training twice a week. That lasted until she moved back to Baltimore in December and began hammering out twice-a-day, two-hour sessions with Bob Bowman and crew again.
So this weekend’s Grand Prix meet will be a bit of a test for her as to what she can do on three months of good hard training, which apparently is even less than Phelps has had (though she wasn’t ‘away’ as long either.)
Though she didn’t address it specifically in this post, starting her ‘break’ story from this past fall, Schmitt’s results both in her senior NCAA season and over the summer after that indicated that perhaps her rest from the full-bore, Olympic-gold-medal level of training extended even earlier, though maybe not as low as the twice-per-day she had in the fall. Throughout, though, she maintained a level of grace fitting a swimmer of her stature, including racing in the B-finals at last year’s Nationals when she could have scratched with nothing really to race for.
Side note: though not as noticeable given that she’s swum at two meets in the last few months already, Katie Hoff is making shall we say her ‘elite’ comeback in Mesa as well. That’s an interesting sidebar here as she was part of the Phelps-Schmitt-Hoff training group at NBAC in the mid-2000’s. She’s now training down in Miami, but it’s an interesting career arc for the three.
Read more about Schmitt and her relationship with Phelps growing up here.
She will be also very important for Usa on both Relays . Happy to see her back .
love love love her! So glad she is back!! She was one of the most decorated Olympians in 2012…and yet she remained humble. Definitely thought more attention should have been shone on her. Can’t wait to see how she swims!!
When you talk to anyone on the National Team they say how warm and nice she is. From the rookies to the veterans, they all enjoy being around her personality. So again – great role model for all.
Thanks to Bobo Gigi for mentioning us that blog. 😉 😆
Happy to see that her body and her mind are refreshed. She needed that break mentally and physically. She looks again ready for big things until Rio.
I will always repeat here that her performance in the 200 free final in London is unfortunately one the most underrated and less commented swims in history while it’s simply one of the greatest of all-time.
With the full body suited WR of Pellegrini in Rome 09 , it’s the best 200 free i have ever seen .
Allison’s race was much more impressive.
1.53.61 in textile is an astonishing time.
Absolutely dominant race.
She has smashed the race from the start to the finish.
Camille Muffat was second in 1.55.58.
Best 200 free ever and in the top 5 of the greatest performances of all-time on the women’s side.
Just my opinion.
The same for Yannick Agnel’s race on the men’s side.
What a classy lassie, that one. I was so crushed for her last summer, but remember really marveling at the classiness and the strength in her, for her to swim the B-finals for the 100 and 200 free, but esp. the 200 free, her signature event. That, to me, made her an even better role model than her Olympic golds. I’m excited to see what she does this weekend at Mesa, and what she continues to do after.