Olympic medalist Missy Franklin swims her last high school meet this weekend in Colorado. The state girls’ swim championships are underway, and the four-time Olympic medal winner has plans to set a couple more state records, reports the Washington Post on Thursday, Feb. 7, before she leaves for the University of California.
This Missy Franklin meet almost did not happen, when several parents of other swimmers complained that Missy was too good for high school competition, and that she drew attention away from the other swimmers. But better sense prevailed. “Just because a swimmer competes in the Olympics doesn’t mean that she has left childhood and high school behind,” said a spokesperson for the Colorado athletic ruling body.
Missy Franklin already holds the backstroke records for Colorado, but this year she will get a shot at the 200-yard individual medley event and the 500 freestyle, along with two more relay events. High school swimmers are limited in how many races they may enter.
Tickets are a huge problem. Want to go? Forget it. The meet organizers held out most of the tickets, for family and friends of all the swimmers, but the rest went fast, There will be standing room only at the pool.
“It would [have been] a real shame for her not to be able to finish it out, to see it to the end,” her father, Richard Franklin, said. “We like to think that as children grow up, you want them to finish things, to stay committed, to meet their obligations. That’s what she’s doing.
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