With all eyes on the NCAA’s conference championships, which kicked off with the SEC today, it is hard to think about seniors’ post-grad plans at this point, let alone those of sophomores. But, when it comes to Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin, people are already posing the question as to what her training plan will look like once she ends this year at Cal. This second year mark holding significance as the amount of time Franklin committed to being an amateur athlete when she first signed on to swim for the Golden Bears.
Franklin tells Mercury News that she has not yet decided on where she will train for Rio 2016. The short-term plan is for her to meet with Cal coach Teri McKeever after the NCAA championships have concluded, which will not be until post-March 21st. Franklin says, “I’ve got my next week and half planned out,” and continues that “What will happen after NCAAs. …there’s really no rush. There’s no plan.”
Coach McKeever comments that she expects Franklin’s life will certainly get more complicated in a professional swimmer’s role, as “your performance is tied to a monetary value….The hard part of it is when you have a contract and you don’t perform you get money taken away. There’s an emotional and mental adjustment. It is really smart for her to make that change now before she gets to Rio.”
Forgoing potential sponsorships and lucrative contracts is exactly what Franklin did when she first committed to Cal two years ago, which, in hindsight, she still feels was the right decision. “I would make the decision to go to college 100 times over,” she says. “When I first got here I wasn’t ready for swimming to be my job just yet.”
Even as Franklin prepares to take the professional swimming route, she says she is still determined to graduate a Golden Bear, stating, “I don’t care if it takes me 20 years, I will get my degree from Cal.”
Full Mercury News Article Here
For the person requesting the studies. Aside from so,e others these are the 2 prominent ones I have seen.
http://sweatscience.com/altitude-training-fails-to-help-australian-swim-team/
http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/bullets/acclim14.htm
This one has Rushall among others included.
Again altitude training is fiction. Just think real application, don’t see AFA or Wyoming lighting it up post season after training at altitude all year.
Thanks !!!
Quotes from Missy’s conference http://bearinsider.com/news/story.php?article=1525
Full video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV6yiiNfvro
They also posted McKeever’s video conference on the Bearinsider forums (Olympic Sports section).
Lots of interesting things said…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMCfu7j-tMs
She’ll tap her ruby reds and go back to Colorado to train for 2016. Berkeley might be nice, but there’s no place like home.
Can we please the “altitude” out of it. Numerous studies have been done and there is no real advantage to training in altitude. Honestly, people really think they are going to sit and say you know CO does have altitude that is a game changer. Give me a break.
I would be interested in those studies if you can reference. Thanks
I say she should either return to Todd, which I doubt she will do, (although she might want to do that for a short time) or train at Stanford.
No criticism against great coach McKeever but I would like to see Missy back in Colorado with Todd Schmitz. At altitude.
On the other hand she would have much more competition from her training partners at Cal. That’s tough to choose but as we say, there’s no place like home.
Anyway, go Missy! I’m sure she will show at NCAA’s, next summer at Worlds and especially next year in Rio, that all the naysayers were totally wrong and that Missy is very far from being done! She will still surprise you guys!
Who, other than a few random trolls or major worry-warts, would be surprised? She’s still only 19 and has he’s got at least 2 more Olympics left in her or more. She seems to be enjoying herself a lot, has the advantages I outlined above, likely hasn’t peaked yet, and has already proven herself able to bounce back from setbacks. With the transition to pro, it feels in many ways like she’s just getting started.
I won’t be surprised if we don’t see another best time from Missy in LCM. We may get more SCY best times mainly because she’s really only rested for 1 big SCY meet in awhile–NCAAs last year. She was so fast at a very young age, it’s very tough to get faster. I’m pretty sure she was 47.9 100 Free as a 14 year old. She was 1:55.0 in 2011 in the 200 Free LCM, 1:54.8 in 2013, which is her fastest. Her backstroke has improved, but not by a lot.
I certainly hope she continues to improve LCM because the USA needs her, but I’m not expecting it.
What setbacks has she had?
Her BK has not improved in 2-3 years
She got injured just before Pan-Pacs last summer, her taper meet, and swam through the meet anyway, did pretty well considering! Keep in mind that 2013 was post-Olympic year when a majority don’t improve, then 2014, in addition to the injury she was adjusting to college, a new state/culture, and away from home from the first time, which can be a huge deal for some swimmers, especially for an only child. She’s also had to focus on events like the 500 that aren’t her events. I went to dual meets last year where she was swimming the 1000 and the 4IM! Now she’ll be able to focus on her own events and also swim mostly LCM in training, I think.… Read more »
I think it’s really a win-win for her. Great coaches in CO or at Cal who reportedly worked well together on her behalf. Cal offers advantage of workout with fast postgrad team group/daily team competition. CO offers the comforts of home and the altitude training which I think gave her a little advantage too. And her parents are reportedly at least well off enough that they could ease the pressure of her having to perform at max performance for $ a bit, although I know her father, at least, was in favor of her going pro. She could even split it up and try both, see which feels better. I can totally see why there’s no rush and no plan… Read more »
betcha Pol’s all excited over Missy possibly NOT training for Rio @ Cal 😉
…or annoyed there will be less to rant about…