Celina Li’s HardCore Swim of the Week performance in the meet between Cal and Cal Poly on September 20 has earned her a spot in the Faces In The Crowd section of Sports Illustrated’s October 14 issue.
As we reported here, Celina was crowned “Queen of the Pool” in the annual Cal vs. Cal Poly Queen of the Pool Meet in San Luis Obispo last month. The format of the meet was a pentathlon consisting of 100s in each stroke and a 100 IM. In winning the title Celina beat out fellow Cal freshman Missy Franklin, quite possibly the NCAA’s most famous first-year athlete.
Celina Li is a true IMer, with four very strong strokes. But her breaststroke leg was enough to make the difference as she squeaked out the overall crown with a .12 second lead over the Olympic champion Franklin:
|
100FLY |
100BK |
100BR |
100FR |
100IM |
Total |
|
| Celina Li |
54.89 |
56.16 |
1:03.70 |
51.44 |
56.91 |
4:43.10 |
| Missy Franklin |
55.14 |
54.79 |
1:06.01 |
49.43 |
57.85 |
4:43.22 |
You can nominate an athlete to appear in Sports Illustrated’s Faces In The Crowd by clicking here. Let’s get more swimmers the recognition they deserve!
Good for Celina; however, look at the drop USA Swimming has taken since the London Olympcs. Almost zero spectators at both the World Championship Tials in Indy and the US Open this August in Irvine. Limited network coverage of the World Championships. Now swimming is relegated to the Faces In Crowd page of SI.
We need change at the very top of USA Swimming. What happened to taking this boat to the next level? Swimming is in reverse gear.