Missy Franklin goes into the upcoming world championships having had only one meet since turning pro after the NCAA championships in March, .
It’s no reason for concern, though. She went into it during a heavy training block designed to build her up to peak at the world championships, Aug. 2-9 in Kazan, Russia.
“In the collegiate season, you fully taper in March for NCAAs, which as a professional athlete you don’t do,” Franklin said. “We fully tapered in March, and then you have to bring that endurance back up.”
in Santa Clara, Calif., Franklin finished third in three events, sixth in one and eighth in another.
“I was not expecting a whole lot out of Santa Clara,” Franklin said last week. “I don’t think I’ve ever raced that tired before, but that was exactly the point. I was only going to have one more meet until worlds; I didn’t need to be winning things there. I didn’t need to be doing my best times there. That being said, it’s still hard not doing that. Getting three third places, I wasn’t happy with that.
“But I also need to take things into consideration and put things in perspective. My strokes felt strong, I was just exhausted. There was no speed there. But that, to me, shows me how hard I’ve been working. That, in itself, gives me confidence. Now it’s really fun, getting closer to worlds and starting to build up that speed a little bit and feel it in practice.”
In fact, it might have been a good sign that she raced as well as she did, as tired as she was.
“It honestly was,” Franklin said. “At the time it didn’t feel like it. To be at that level in any sport, you have that competitiveness, so when you finish like that you’re not happy with it. But over the past couple weeks I’m kind of letting it sit, going back, looking at results. There are some really good things that happened there. It gave me confidence and made me proud that I was working so hard, I was still giving my all in the pool, knowing that there was still a lot there.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or
