RIO DE JANEIRO — The rise of Missy Franklin begins now.
Despite bitter disappointment at the Rio Olympics, she vows a comeback, saying: “I feel like I have so much left to give this sport.”
At the abrupt end of her Summer Games, after touching the wall 14th in the 200-meter backstroke Thursday evening and failing to qualify for the finals in a race where she owns the world record, she paused and let the anguish roll slowly off her like water. Franklin wept without fear, without shame, without regret.
After winning five medals in London at age 17 in 2012, these Olympics in Brazil were worse than Franklin’s worst nightmare.
And know the hard part? After four years of answering the alarm before dawn, after enduring a debilitating back injury and after moving out of her warm cocoon in suburban Denver to attend college, she knew this Olympic disappointment was not only destined to happen, but happen with the whole world watching.
The fall of a champion can be lonely. Franklin, however, did not take this journey alone.
The beauty of being a daughter is you can always be a kid while leaning on your mother’s shoulder, and D.A. Franklin was there when the Colorado swimmer fell well short of medal contention in two individual events. Her last tough day of Olympic competition was also Dick Franklin’s birthday, and when I asked if there was time to send Dad greetings, a smiled filled Missy’s face as she said: “Of course!”
And there’s somebody else critically important in Franklin’s life. He is somebody who has been there on the pool deck, calling out split times since Missy was in elementary school, somebody who laughed with her in London, somebody who gave her the courage to get back in the pool after a confidence-shattering injury in 2014, and somebody who had Franklin’s back when NBC television cameras abandoned her for new American swim sensation Katie Ledecky.
Todd Schmitz has been the coach to Franklin from the Colorado Stars to the Olympics, from childhood to womanhood, from golden moments through crushing disappointment. The best coaches understand that leadership is service and the athlete always comes first. Schmitz gets it.
“To have this journey with Todd has been so special,” said Franklin, who left the University of California and reunited with Schmitz in the months leading up to Brazil, when they both worked nonstop attempting to put an Olympic champion back together again. “He sacrificed a lot to take me back this year … It meant the world to me.”
The maturation of this relationship between Schmitz and Franklin — growing from mentor and pupil to adults working side by side as equals — has been one of the coolest things I have ever had a chance to witness in 40 years of hanging around sports.
“Itap so cool to see how our relationship has changed and grown,” Franklin said. “Itap just so special. Itap one of those relationships where I know he’s going to be front row at my wedding. And I can’t wait until I get to introduce my kids to him one day. He’s family. To go through all this, to have learned so much from him, itap been a true blessing.”
Weeks before the Games, Schmitz told me that as incredible as it has been to have a front-row seat for all Franklin’s amazing athletic achievements, it has been far cooler to witness the way this woman shows strength and heart outside of the pool.
In her first act as an Olympian, Franklin was America’s sweetheart. Her performance did her home state of Colorado proud and her personality infused the pool with bubbles.
In her second act, Franklin returned to the Games and got her heart broken. Colorado cried with her. More than 4,000 miles away from her home, Franklin felt the love, with messages that declared: “You’re so much more than just the number of medals that you have. You’re so much more than the times you swim in the pool. Your value goes so beyond all of that.”
It was a tough lesson, but an invaluable lesson, one Franklin admitted she probably would not have learned without suffering immense pain at these Games.
And now Franklin will attempt one of the toughest things in sports. Left in the wake of Ledecky and fading from the Olympic spotlight, Franklin will try to re-invent herself.
Truth be told, itap a story seldom told with a happy ending. Some way, some how, Franklin must find a way to put the shine back on a fallen star.
The rise begins now.
