Relentless Spirit by Missy Franklin

Author:Missy Franklin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-11-16T10:20:15+00:00

MOM: What a lot of people don’t really think about is that these games were like a rite of passage for us. Remember, Missy was our only child. She came into our lives like a little miracle, and here she was, seventeen years old, getting ready to head off to college in just a year. It was a bittersweet time. It’s like our time with her was coming to an end, and in a lot of ways the Olympics were symbolic of that. For me, anyway. One night, about a month before we left for London, I found myself feeling a little wistful, a little reflective, and I sat down and wrote a long e-mail to Karen Crouse of the New York Times. Karen had covered swimming for years and years, and she’d become a family friend, she was close with Missy, and I knew if there was anyone who could understand the tug and pull I was feeling about these special moments in Missy’s life, it was her.

Here’s what I wrote:

“My daughter is seventeen, still a minor, a teenager, and still a child in many ways. My daughter is an Olympian. . . . No, I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. I watch the Comcast Olympic trials replays over and over again, wondering how I missed so much! I smile, and tears roll down my cheeks as I hear her called an Olympian. Yes, my little girl. I think about all those meets. I smile as I think of my OCD routines . . . clean towels, three pairs of goggles in her bag, two caps, and then the snacks and drinks . . . always, too much! As she started qualifying for the ‘big’ meets, like zones, sectionals, junior nationals, nationals, Olympic trials, my routine changed somewhat. Although she packed her own suitcase, I couldn’t let go of that swim bag that she carried onto the plane with her. Now there were always NEW towels and NEW goggles in her bag. Although I made her adjust the goggles so that they were perfect when she needed them, I left the sticker protectors on the eye pieces to protect them and allow her to see which ones were still unmarked and fresh for her.

“Two weeks ago she left on another travel meet, this time to join the Olympic team. I got out the washed new towels, three pairs of her ever-familiar Speedo Women’s Vanquisher goggles, pulled them out of their packages and had her try on each pair and cut the straps . . . not too short, as I didn’t want them to slip on her. She stopped her reading and patiently performed this task without complaint. She had done it so many times and knew this is what ‘I did.’ This is how I was ‘part’ of her swimming. I added the new Speedo nose clips that she has used for the last two years. I also put one out for Coach Todd’s bag and

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