American swimmer Missy Franklin is one of three new members of the Laureus World Sports Academy that were announced in Monaco this week. Franklin becomes the 67th member of the academy, along with golfer Lorena Ochoa (66th) and Luciana Aymar (68th). Franklin is the organization’s youngest-ever ambassador.
The trio was presented at last week’s Awards Ceremony. In addition to ambassadorship duties for spreading Laureus’ message of breaking down barriers through the power of sport, this gives Franklin a vote in the Laureus World Sports Awards. She becomes one of 4 swimmers in the group, alongside legend Mark Spitz, who became the first Olympian to win 7 gold medals at a single Olympics when he did so in 1972; and 4-time Olympic gold medalist Dawn Fraser from Australia.
The 23-year old Franklin, who announced her retirement from swimming in December, won 5 Olympic gold and 1 Olympic silver medal between the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. She also won 11 World Championships in her career, including a record 6 at the 2013 World Championships. That earned her the 2014 Sportswoman of the Year award: the only swimmer to ever win that honor.
No swimmers were nominated for any awards at this year’s Laureus World Sport Awards. Tennis star Novak Djokovic won the male World Sportsman of the Year Award, while American gymnast Simone Biles won World Sportswoman of the Year.
This will drive non-American swimfans nuts, but Missy’s two top lifetime performances includes a Short Course Yards swim.
1) {obviously} the 200 LCM Backstroke 2:04.06 WR, 2012 Olympic Gold at age 17; the next best non-Missy and non-supersuit era swim is Emily Seebohm’s 2:05.68, 1.62 seconds back ) and,
2)very close to that same level, was Missy’s 200 SCY freestyle at 2015 NCAAs for CAL(about a month short of age 20) at 1:39.10, the first woman ever under 1:40, with only Mallory Comerford (#6 all-time performer at 100 LCM Free) joining her since at 1:39.80. The next fastest 200 SCY performers all-time are Ledecky (1:40.31), Manuel (1:40.37) and Schmitt (1:40.62), which reflects pretty well on the quality… Read more »
THAT Cathy Freeman was not a swimmer. She won a gold for Australia in the 400 meters in track and field in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics. She is an Australian aborigine.
Braden –
At least two other swimmers (besides Mark Spitz) are on the list of members that are posted at the conclusion of your article. They are American Cathy Ferguson and Australia’s legendary Dawn Fraser. Congrats to Missy Franklin!
Right you are, good spotting!
I like to think Bruce modelled himself on her .
Remarkable resilience and phenomenal ability in selling her smile. Her decline in performance was so dramatic without any obvious reasons that deserves a special study. At golden swimming age of 23 she was slower than when she was 14. If not to count her outstanding world record that after almost 7 years already wasn’t yet approached it is a pretty ordinary athlete career by American standards: 2 individual gold medals in one Olympics and 4 individual gold medals in three world championships.
I wish her new career to be longer lasting than the one she had in the swimming pool.
“Without any obvious reason” she had double shoulder surgery.
Her LC performances dropped steeply after entering ncaa. Maybe swimming 500 frees with all those turns did her back in / or the weights program / growth lowered power to strength ratio . She was plateauing albeit at a high level in 2013 bit by 2014 she could barely get out of the pool.
You think freestyle turns are worse for your back than backstroke starts? Maybe she had to do freestyle because her back was already fried.
I’m not quite sure what’s behind your deep dislike for Missy Franklin. As another poster mentioned double shoulder surgery question motivation behind your ‘no obvious reason’ blank statement. She put on the smile for the public while the fear of failure was too strong to overcome. I do not know your personal achievements but your continued dissing of Missy achievements comes across as sour grapes
14-18 years old Melissa Frenklin was a swimming phenomenon. Nobody argues that. The following 5 years was a chain of disappointments accompanied with the tons of promises and expectations that never materialized. Her relays medals were made in the company of world record holders like Dana Vollmer, Rebecca Soni, Allison Schmitt, Katie Ledecky. Her splits were of high quality, but not that much exciting with the exception probably of 4×200 relay in Barcelona. Missy Franklin was a bright chapter in the history of competitive swimming and it will only help her legacy if her achievements are described accordingly.
If her life from 18-23 (educated for four years one of the top universities in the world, swims another Olympics, pursues additional academic studies, speaks out about mental health issues, gets married) is “a chain of disappointments,” you’re living on another planet.
2 individual OG gold & 4 individual WC gold is not very ordinary even by American standards. Only 5 US swimmers have more than 6 golds at Olympics and Worlds.
Phelps 13 OG & 15 WC
Ledecky 4 OG & 10 WC
Lochte 2 OG & 10 WC
Peirsol 3 OG & 7 WC
Evans 4 OG & 3 WC
* 6 individual golds
The list of American swimmers who have 2 or more Olympic gold medals is significantly longer. Not all of them participated in three WCs.
Over the top Hosszu bashing, now Franklin. Do you just have a thing against accomplished women marketing themselves? Try Schooling for awhile to balance things out. You just sound like a guy who hates his job because he lost out on a low-level promotion for a woman and spends all day trashing them on a swimming message board.
I hope you feel better now 😀
2nd swimmer… huh? I guess Ryk Neethling doesn’t count? Filippo Magnini? Pieter VDH?
None of those people are members of the academy. You can see the full list here:
https://www.laureus.com/academy/members
The individuals you’ve named are all “ambassadors.” That’s a different program. Both have overlapping duties in promoting the Laureus Sport for Good program, but only Academy members get votes. Missy is also an ambassador. You can see all of the ambassadors here:
https://www.laureus.com/ambassadors
Go Missy! What an honor.