Missy: I’m training better than I ever have in my life (Interview)

Produced by Coleman Hodges.

Reported by Jared Anderson.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu made her first appearance of the night in winning the 100 backstroke on a big back half. Hosszu trailed 18-year-old American Kathleen Baker at the 50, but surged back to go 59.91 for the win.

Olympic champ Missy Franklin had an even better back half than Hosszu, and passed up Baker for silver in 1:00.03. Baker, a freshman at Cal, where Franlin starred for two seasons, was 1:00.04 to finish just behind in bronze.

Zimbabwean Olympian Kirsty Coventry, still challenging the world’s best at age 32, was 1:00.36, topping Mizzou’s Hannah Stevens (1:00.51) and Stanford pro Maya DiRado (1:00.77) for fourth.

Canada’s Dominique Bouchard was 1:01.11 for seventh, and U.S. Olympian Rachel Bootsma went 1:01.70 to take 8th for Cal.

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Steve-O Nolan
8 years ago
Ferb
8 years ago

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who watched Missy blast that 1:39.1 200y free at NCAA’s last Spring. And the usual “short course yards are irrelevant to LCM” argument doesn’t really apply here, because her turns and underwaters are not exceptional, and she is stronger at 200 free than 100 free in LCM.

lottalatte
Reply to  Ferb
8 years ago

Agree Ferb. You have to realize though that she did that incredible 200 free while swimming for Teri at Cal, so it goes against the standard “swimming for Cal ruins your career” belief.

Gina Rhinestone
8 years ago

Obviously MF is highly likely to get a spot on the US team in the 200 back unless she gets the munchies & stacks on 50lb.

SpeedoArenaJaked
8 years ago

I tend to agree with Tom From Chicago about Missy. It is a shame because she might have missed her “pro” window of opportunity to train in college. She may come close to her best times, but she won’t surprise anyone. Truly a shame.

mcgillrocks
Reply to  SpeedoArenaJaked
8 years ago

I agree more or less. I’m not saying Missy will never swim a best time again in one of her top-5 events (50/100/200 back, 100/200 free). I think she will get one or two.

But will she ever be in London or Barcelona form? I’m not sure. I think at this point it’s fair to say that Missy probably won’t match all of her 2013 times in one season ever again.

Gina Rhinestone
8 years ago

Colorado Mountain High has 24 unique lines of lyrics , all coherently building a narrative . Quite amazing really . I think we should hold a 2015 version competition with the newly liberated minds up there & see how things are going .

Mj & altitude must be an interesting mix.

swimdoc
Reply to  Gina Rhinestone
8 years ago

Your tangentiality, which I always just found humorous, is no longer seeming so tangential to me. I’m either moving towards enlightenment or dementia.

Gina Rhinestone
Reply to  swimdoc
8 years ago

Dementia has its uses . It allows many people to bury awful memories before they die . It’s a philosophical decision the carer /institution has to take either let them go or hound the poor things to remember .

I plan on forgetting Australia’s run of dreadful boy butterflies .

OLDBALDIMER
8 years ago

Was at the meet on Sunday and was interesting to watch Missy beat everyone in the swimming part of the race, but she got killed off the start, turn and underwaters. Would be a great question to ask her what she is doing to improve this part of her race. If she gets her start and underwaters down to at least be with the others…. I think she can rock Rio.

Swammerjammer
Reply to  OLDBALDIMER
8 years ago

For 2 years, Coach mckeever did not address technical mechanics. Mind boggling.

dude
Reply to  Swammerjammer
8 years ago

indeed. It seems Todd doesn’t, either. Just think how fast she’d be if he spent a few minutes teaching her how to do a start, turn, and kickout instead of fitting in some more training for her.

swimdoc
Reply to  dude
8 years ago

Maybe both coaches have worked on this, and she’s just not an athletic leaper. I don’t think it’s so much a matter of mechanics. She just can’t jump. She’s the Larry Byrd of women’s swimming.

Steve Schaffer
Reply to  Swammerjammer
8 years ago

Seriously?!? These rants against Teri are getting more and more ridiculous. DI college swimmer come to their college programs with far more years of coaching (technical and non-technical) that is embedded in their swimming than they will get in their college careers.

Of course Coach McKeever worked on technical mechanics with Missy. Just as Coach Coach Schmitz surely did.

What is mind boggling is the ongoing attacks on a coach whose swimmers have produced more Olympic medals than all but a very few US coaches. What is mind boggling is the lack of courage to continue to make such unfounded attacks in anonymous posts. One can only wonder what the motivation for such attacks is.

Swimgeekgirl
8 years ago

I think Missy is going to surprise a lot of people when Trials and Olympics come around.

Tom from Chicago
8 years ago

Many female swimmers have historically peaked in their mid-teens. I wouldn’t be surprised if Missy peaked in 2012/2013. I wouldn’t be surprised if Missy only managed a :59.5 and 2:05 in the backs.

fhui
Reply to  Tom from Chicago
8 years ago

Swimmers such as Sjostrom, Campbell, Kromowidjojo, Hosszu, Addlington, etc. have done really well and have peaked in their twenties (Kromowidjojo as far as I can remember was not the fastest until 2011 – 2012), and even those who aren’t medal winners (eg Halsall) have done well (Halsall I think may have peaked in 2014 when she was ~24) after mid teens. Plus swimmers not from recent times… My knowledge on USA swimmers is not as good as knowledge on European swimmers but I think you get the point. Maybe it is something USA is doing differently to Europe/elsewhere that causes swimmers to peak at different ages?

About Coleman Hodges

Coleman Hodges

Coleman started his journey in the water at age 1, and although he actually has no memory of that, something must have stuck. A Missouri native, he joined the Columbia Swim Club at age 9, where he is still remembered for his stylish dragon swim trunks. After giving up on …

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