Three-time Olympian Abbey Weitzeil has announced her return to training at the competitive level. Weitzeil gave birth to her first child just six weeks ago.
“I really thought Paris would be my last race ever…
Since then: Got married, moved cities, bought a house, had a baby 🩵 And it all brought me back to the pool. 6 weeks postpartum and we’re back into it with a whole new approach and a whole new plan.. and I’m beyond excited for this wild ride! First morning practice in the books ✔️
Tell a friend to tell a friend 😏… I’m baaaaaaaackkkkkk!!!!”
Back in September 2024, about a month after the Paris Olympics, Weitzeil announced that she would take the year off of swimming. She made the announcement on TikTok while cleaning out her locker at Cal, where she competed collegiately from 2016-2020 and then continued to train in Berkeley as a pro.
She has represented the US at the last three Olympics, swimming to gold (women’s 4×100 medley relay) and silver (women’s 4×100 free relay) back in 2016. At the 2020(1) Tokyo Olympics, she won silver (women’s 4×100 medley relay) and bronze (women’s 4×100 free relay). She also swam the individual 50 and 100 freestyles at both the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Her last meet before her break was the 2024 Paris Olympics where she swam in prelims of the mixed 4×100 medley relay that won gold during the final. She also swam in prelims of the women’s 4×100 free relay that won silver.
Weitzeil’s Instagram post today was taken during morning practice at Queens University in North Carolina. She said it was her “first real practice since Paris.” She documented some of her swims during her pregnancy over the winter.
Who is coaching her??
This sport does a really terrible job of helping these athletes transition out of the sport. With the youth movement well under way, exemplified by Women’s NCAA’s recently its only getting harder and harder for these athletes to make future NT’s especially since there’s a strong chance the US only takes 5 to LA28 from Trials for 4×100 and 4×200 Free relays due to the potential of 50’s eating up the 6th place spots. I sincerely wish Abbey all the best!
Who cares if it is harder? It’s her life, her time, and her goals so let her chase what fulfills her.
Out of ignorance, can a woman go back to training that soon after giving birth while breastfeeding?
Why wouldn’t she be able to? It might not be comfortable but there’s nothing to stop a woman from returning to training. I’m sure she’s had all the advice she needs about next steps. Good for her!
Remember Dara Torres…
With the explosion of depth that’s happening in the US freestyle sprinting rankings it’s gonna be tough.
Agree. It’s within reach to grab a relay spot but going to be tough.
Still, lot of marketability to moms making a comeback. See Janet Evans, Dana Vollmer, Dara Torres. So from a career perspective still smart of her to try.
I lifted some heavy boxes a few weeks ago so I can totally relate to what she’s going through. Planning to get back in the pool any day now.
#comebackstronger #eyeofthetiger
The home Olympics is such a big draw for all these American athletes they just can’t retire lol
I also think the approach to sprint training has changed so much, even in the short time she has been away from the sport. As a new mother, Abbey’s approach could just have her in the water 5x per week…and it could be enough…could even be less.
Yeah, McEvoy is in the pool like 4 times a week. There’s gonna be a paradigm shift.
The yardage and aerobic work has to be put in during the teenage years no matter what. Then, once the brain and body are fully developed in the 20’s, this lighter swimming load and heavier lifting load will have an effect at increasing top end speed. However, people have to be very careful that this may only work for 50’s when there’s virtually no aerobic energy system used. I think there’s still got to be yards put in to finish a 100 against the best in the world.
Well yes I think it probably works best for 50s, but what evidence do you have you need a yardage and aerobic base for that? McEvoy personally doesn’t think it matters. Maybe he’s wrong, but this seems like conjecture.
I can kinda get the logic behind it, that you’re tapering off in a way, but regardless, Weitzel is 29 and has done that time.
What definitely makes McEvoy the fastest swimmer in the world is his technique and carefully constructed training regime in the pool and gym.
Aerobic training increases the mitochondria in the cells, which takes care of the garbage produced by heavy training. The mitochondria performance at the cellular level have a huge impact on performance and recovery. This cellular develop happens during aerobic threshold training.
I am not sure if you are talking about 50 races or 100s. Anything race over about 30 seconds has a component of the aerobic system at work, thus producing different molecules that the cells need to manage in order for the athlete to perform optimally.
I think the older athletes with a solid aerobic base developed at younger ages are finding success in 50s (Cam McEvoy) at older ages. I am skeptical that their 100 races will… Read more »
Do the mitochondria not decline over time though? McEvoy has not done aerobic swim training in like 5 years. He hadn’t done it in over a year by the time he started swimming again with his new program.
I don’t know whether it could be scaled up to the 100, but I think it’s clear that what McEvoy was doing in 2017-2021 wasn’t working for him, and he needed this change.
I think one thing people underestimate with Cam is how much everything he does is tracked and monitored though. There isn’t a facility in the western hemisphere that has the ability to track everything he does in the water. The unit he uses for resistance costs $16,000 and the block, timing, and camera system at AIS cost significantly more. Can you implement pieces of his system without all of that? Sure, but those margins when you train 1000-1500 a week in water and are only racing the shortest event matter.
If USA Swimming were serious, they’d invest in that, but even the Colorado Springs pool is not remotely set up to install a system like that.
MA stopped aerobic training pretty young right? You can’t say he put it in the bank aerobically. Pretty fast dude even if he didn’t win Olympic gold.
in the relay he did
You don’t get to be young again. Rage against the dying of the light.
Good for her, takes perseverance to get back in the pool after that much time off, especially after having a baby. Would definitely love some insight regarding what the “whole new approach” entails.