The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of an Olympic Champion | Missy Franklin
About this episode
Missy Franklin discusses her journey as an Olympic swimmer, the challenges she faced, and her current life as a mother and athlete.
Missy Franklin is one of the greatest swimmers of all time. She made her first Olympic Trials at 13 years old, and four years later she went to London and absolutely dominated—four gold medals, a bronze, and a world record in the 200 backstroke. But what I loved about this conversation is that we spent just as much time talking about what happened when things stopped going perfectly. Four years after London, Missy went into the Rio Olympics carrying enormous expectations, injuries, sponsor pressure, and the weight of trying to recreate the greatest week of her life. She didn't make a single individual final and describes those eight days as some of the hardest of her life. After bilateral shoulder surgeries and fighting for 18 months to get back, she eventually had to retire at only 23 years old. We talked about all of it—the insane suffering swimmers put themselves through, making the Olympics as a teenager, what it actually feels like to win a gold medal, breaking a world record, turning down life-changing money to swim at Cal, failing publicly in Rio, and learning that sometimes the way you lose says more about you than the way you win. Missy is also in a completely different…
More episodes of RIDEOUT: The Other Side of Hard
- From a Prison Cell to Nike Brand Director | Jordan Rogers
- From Compulsive Gambler to a $465 Million Exit | Rich Galgano
- 19 Million Followers, Losing Everything, and Starting Over in Nashville | Tayler Holder
- International Fugitive to UFC Top 10 | Ian Heinisch
- Brutal Hits, Broken Bodies & the Business of Football | Bernard Pollard
- The Cop Who Went to Prison for 19 Years | Kent McGowen
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the RIDEOUT: The Other Side of Hard podcast page.