AURORA — Missy Franklin was feeling some pressure just before she left for the swimming world championships this summer in China. What if she didn’t pass the test to get her first driver’s license?
If she failed, DMV rules said she couldn’t take the test again for a week, but by then she’d be in Shanghai. She’d have to wait weeks — after worlds, nationals and a family vacation in Hawaii — to take the test again. But Franklin, the Regis Jesuit 16-year-old who is America’s most exciting young swimmer, came through under pressure.
“Perfect score, baby!” Franklin said. “I was super nervous, because it got around to a few people that I was trying to get it. I was like, ‘Oh no, if I fail, I’m so (embarrassed).’ My parents brought my actual license to Shanghai. I was so excited, running around, showing everyone.”
Franklin showed the world a lot more than that, winning five medals, including three gold, and establishing herself as a potential superstar for the 2012 London Olympics. Now she’s back in school, taking AP American literature, AP U.S. history, physics, trigonometry, theology and two online courses. She got back in the pool Tuesday for the first time since nationals.
Without swimming for a month, she’s had so much excess energy that she had trouble sleeping.
“So, so excited,” Franklin said before slipping into the pool at Grandview High School on Tuesday with three dozen Colorado Stars teammates for a 5,200-yard workout. “Hopefully, it will get some of the energy out of me. I’m sure I will sleep like a baby.”
Franklin grabbed the attention of the swimming world this summer not only with her power in the pool but the force of her enthusiasm.
“She’s what swimming needs right now,” said Amy Van Dyken, a Cherry Creek High School product and six-time Olympic gold medalist. “Someone who loves the sport, who loves swimming, who is doing it because of that and not trying to make a comeback or trying to get this endorsement or that endorsement. She just loves swimming.”
Giving back to others
Franklin also made an impact on her current U.S. teammates, who found her youthful exuberance infectious.
“She is barely 16 and so strong, and she has the maturity to handle the pressure of swimming,” relay teammate Natalie Coughlin said at worlds. “She gets so excited. She’s genuinely happy and excited to race, more so than any other swimmer on this team. All of us are trying to mimic that as much as possible. It’s unbelievably refreshing to have her energy on the team.”
Franklin was walking into the interview room in Shanghai as Coughlin spoke, and she was blown away to hear those words come from her favorite athlete.
“That was such an incredibly sweet thing for her to say,” Franklin said. “The fact that my energy and excitement helps other teammates is an even better feeling, because being a teammate is so important.”
At nationals in Stanford, Calif., which immediately followed worlds, Franklin won two gold medals and then gave them away. One went to a little girl named Olivia, a “basket girl” who had the job of collecting swimmers’ clothes before they got on the starting blocks.
Why give away medals?
“It means more to them,” Franklin said. “The next day her dad came up to me and said, ‘Thank you so much.’ She ended up sending me a letter with a picture with the medal. To have that effect on people, it’s so heartwarming.”
Franklin’s father, Dick, probably will never forget watching his daughter’s first gold medal podium ceremony at the world championships.
“Imagine us all sitting in the aquatic center in Shanghai, 20,000 people, 90 percent of them Chinese, and there’s Missy standing on the podium,” Dick Franklin said. “She’s got the gold medal around her neck, the flag is going up, everybody in the place is standing up, the national anthem is being played and they superimpose Missy’s face on the American flag on the Jumbo-Tron.”
Franklin’s mom, who goes by the initials DA, finished the story. “That’s when we lost it.”
Only 42 weeks to trials
Franklin said her parents and Stars coach Todd Schmitz do a good job of letting her be “a 16-year-old girl,” but next month she goes to Moscow and Berlin for World Cup meets.
Whether she swims for Regis, as well as her club team, has yet to be determined.
“It really just depends on if it fits into our overall plan,” said Schmitz, who has coached Franklin since she was 7. “We’re 42 weeks out from the Olympic trials — 42 weeks sounds like a lot, but really when you think about it, it’s not. We’ve just really got to look at how it plays out, how it falls into our calendar, what big meets we plan on going to.”
With Franklin driving herself to school and swim practice now, her mom already misses their time together in the car. The first day of school two weeks ago was tough for both parents.
“Emotions ran high because it reminded us when she got on the yellow bus with her pink backpack for kindergarten,” Dick Franklin said. “Here she is a young adult, steps into the Toyota on her own, starts the car and drives away to her first day of school.
“It’s like, ‘Whoa, where did that 10 years go?’ “
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
