Olympian Missy Franklin Talks About Winning and New Challenges

Steve Adubato goes one-on-one with Olympic swimming champion, Missy Franklin, now the author of a memoir “Relentless” co-written with her parents. She opens up about her passion for swimming, winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics at only 17 years of age, and how her deep faith kept her strong.

1/26/17 #2010

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"There she is! She is Missy Franklin. She is the author of Relentless Spirit and she is a Superstar! Oh Hardly! Yeah, in the world of swimming and athletics, you're terrific. Thank you! Thank you!Loaded question... What's your story? Oh my gosh! Well people should go buy the book and read it! Born and raised where? Born and raised in Denver, Colorado. When did you know that you wanted to be an athlete? Ever since I was young. My parents put me in every sport you could possibly imagine and I just loved being athletic. I loved having teams I loved just enjoying it and getting out there and being competitive. I played two sports all the way up until high school so I've always just been a really competitive person. That's you? That's me! Little nugget me. Competitive swimming early on? You know, I started my summer club team when I was 5 and I started year round swimming when I was 7 so, fairly early and it was all entirely my decision. It was me going to my parents saying I love this so much and I want to do more of it. The Olympic track if you will. Yeah. When does that kick in... that people say "hey, you've got it?" You know, it really depends on the person. It's so crazy. You look at someone like Katie Ledecky who in 2012, no one even knew who she was until 3 months before the London Olympic games and then she goes and wins a gold medal. For me, it was more... I guess if there is a normal progression, I had a bit more of a normal progression where I went to Olympic trials in 2008 when I was 13 and absolutely loved it and decided that I wanted to be back there in 4 years and actually had a shot at making the team and the next three years I qualified for all the major national team meets over the summer which was the Pan-Pacific championships and a world championships leading up to the games and then was able to qualify for 2012. How much pressure are we talking? It depends. For you? It depends. I honestly think I put the most pressure on myself. I don't feel it externally from my parents, from my family from my support system, even from my amazing fans and now my companies that I'm lucky enough to be a part of, they're all just so supportive and they want me to go out there and have fun and be my best, but I think it's myself that really comes down with that hammer saying you know you really..."