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U.S. OLYMPIC SWIM TRIALS

June 25, 2016

Missy Franklin

Omaha, Nebraska

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us today for day two of press conferences ahead of swim trials. We have Missy Franklin leading us off today. We will just open it up for a general comment from Missy about what it feels like to be in Omaha.

MISSY FRANKLIN: Good morning, everybody! So good to see you all. I'm so excited to be here. I was telling Todd yesterday when we walked into the competition pool for the first time you kind of forget how exciting this is until you're here again. It's almost impossible to recreate that feeling when you're not actually here.

To be here again the fact that it's four years later is completely blowing my mind. No idea where the time went but feels so good going into this meet, can't wait for Monday to be here and really excited to start off the meet with one of my favorite events.

Q. Dana (Vollmer) was in here yesterday and saying that there is something a little bit liberating go going into her best event not ranked number one in the world and being the chaser as opposed to the chase. Can you relate to that at all?
MISSY FRANKLIN: Absolutely, you know I think my times were a little bit slower than where I would have liked them to be in season and that kind of makes the end of season that much more exciting, because you know what you are capable of, you know what you've been training all year long, and you have kind of been pushing it and pushing it, but to get that rest, to really know that you're going to be ready to rock on all cylinders and go out there and really have this performance that you've been waiting to have for so long, it really amps up the excitement, it does, I was just swimming warm-up yesterday and I was like, this is so fun!

I totally forgot how fun it is to be rested and to have that feeling that you know you're about to go out there and give your all and do your best so, yeah, I think I can definitely relate to that. Also, total side note, I wore a pair of pants to the airport yesterday that you would have loved! They were so "Karen!"

Q. (No microphone.)
MISSY FRANKLIN: No! I still have them, though. I will wear them and take a picture of them.

Q. I would like to know is it possible to compare who you are today, compared to four years ago?
MISSY FRANKLIN: You know, it's funny because I find myself similar in so many ways and also different in so many ways. I think overall my attitude, my optimism kind of the bubbly girl that won't stop talking on deck, that's all exactly the same. But I've also grown a lot the past four years, I've been through a lot more than when I was 17, so I also feel like I have this new wisdom that I've gained throughout the successes and the challenges of the past four years and having that, it makes you feel more mature in a way and kind of walking around I feel like I can almost hold my head a little bit higher knowing I've been through all of this and kind of been through this whole thing, especially having gone to the Olympics in 2012 after making the team and being back here. You have a lot more under your belt, and you feel like it really helps add to who you are as an athlete and as a person.

Q. Missy, with those times being a little bit slower has Todd had to -- how has he tried to build you up saying, hey, we're pointing to the Trials, we're pointing to Rio; it's not about peaking now, it's about peaking then. And, also, second part of that question, a lot of times athletes, when they get into a taper, they get a little berserk, because there is so much energy that they're not getting out. I wonder if you can address what the taper has been like in terms of nervous anxiety and energy.
MISSY FRANKLIN: Absolutely. I don't really think Todd has had to do to much. We've done this before. We know how it works, and I think we did it pretty well last time. So we know that I'm going to be ready when I need to be ready, and that's right now. I also need to be ready in a couple months but I also need to be ready right now. This is my goal, I need to make the Olympic Team. That's what I'm here to do, and so that's what we've been preparing for, and I think both of us feel really confident heading into that, and with the taper energy it's really funny. You almost forget how much energy you don't have throughout the year because you get so accustomed to it, and all of the sudden you start resting and you're like, what is this?

I can't remember feeling like this! Our flight got delayed for a couple hours yesterday, and I honestly felt like I was about to burst. Like, I was sitting at home and I just could not contain all the energy that I had. I practically ran into the pool yesterday.

But it's an awesome feeling to have, you know? And I don't think those nerves have hit me yet. I'm still just so excited, and I know as we get closer it will start turning more into a nervous excitement just as that anticipation builds for that first swim but right now it's really just pure excitement.

Q. Missy, we've been talking to you over the past few months about your handling of stardom and obligations you have outside the pool. When you get to a setting like this where there is a massive humanity, and a lot of younger swimmers who now think of you as the "rock star" how will you handle or have you handled situations like this where every other swimmer wants a piece of you, and you also have to focus on your preparation?
MISSY FRANKLIN: You know, I take it as a great challenge. This is the best of the best that's here right now, this is the best that the USA has to offer and to be here is an honor and to race against my fellow competitors is an honor.

I frequently say if you had an A final and I had to go out there and swim by myself, chances are I would not do we will but with seven other of the best in the country right next to me, they push me to be my best and I'm so grateful for that. That's part of what makes our sport so fun, even if they're not your teammates they're your competitors and they still find a way to make you better every time you hit the water.

Q. How do you stay confident when, like you say, the times aren't necessarily where you wanted them to be because so much of it is performance and if you think you're doing the training but the times aren't being produced, how do you come into here still confident that things are going to come together here?
MISSY FRANKLIN: I think there is two parts to that. I think one of them is the concrete kind of proof that you have every day of what you're doing in practice, of the data that you're being looking at after you swim looking at where things are and realizing that a lot of the reason that the times aren't there is just because you're tired and you are exhausted and you are working so hard which is exactly what you're supposed to be doing. The second part of that is just having faith, knowing that hard work always pays off no matter which and if you've giving your all every single day for every practice, every stroke that when you need to be ready you're going to be ready, and it's having faith in my weight Coach Lauren, having faith in Todd, having faith in my physical therapist, Michelle and knowing that this whole team is going to come together just at the right time when I need to be ready.

Q. I know you weren't around during the whole swim suit craziness, but I'm curious, do you like the rules the way they are now? You know, you always feel like suit companies would like to push it a little bit more and be able to test it at NASA or whatever. But what do you think about the rules as they are, and is there any concern, or do you think that they will be changed at all going forward?
MISSY FRANKLIN: Honestly, I couldn't tell you. I won't lie the 2008 suits are still my favorite. Like those stars and stripes were so cool! I remember watching that, just thinking they were amazing! But I know the suit rules are there to make it equal for everyone, and that's what's most important and I know with Speedo I'm getting the best no matter what those suit regulations are. I know they are going to make the fastest suit out there, so as long as I'm racing in that, I feel confident.

Q. During the struggles you had with your back and a few other minor things which slowed you down a great deal last year going into World's, what was the frustration level like? Did you ever have a moment like am I ever going to get through this?
MISSY FRANKLIN: Absolutely, my frustration level was incredibly high. Having to leave Cal was probably the biggest sacrifice I have ever made for this sport, and I did not take it lightly at all. It was so hard to leave there, but I truly felt, like, being back with Todd going into this year and being back with my family and being back in Colorado was something that I was really going to need, so to be back and to have worked so hard for two months and still kinda be so disappointed with where I was, it was incredibly frustrating, but at the same time I also needed to step back and look at the things we had achieved on the path to get to World's, the fact that we were at World's, and I had no episodes with my back, no issues whatsoever. I think that was really the main goal for us because my swims at international competitions aren't exactly the easiest.

And so to go through such a long meet with so many races and come out being healthy and physically well, I think, was the most important thing for all of us and that really set us up well going into training and preparing us for this summer.

Q. Your last meet at Cal, obviously an incredible meet at NCAAs. How do you look back on that meet now 16 months later and how do you recapture that energy just how great you were at that meet and how excited you were about your swims there?
MISSY FRANKLIN: You know, I channel that meet a lot, actually. I was in such a great place going into that meet in so many of my races. I barely remember them because I felt so confident behind the blocks. I just went out there and swam, and I kind of laugh about stuff, too, like how on earth did I win the 200 IM? How did that happen? And thinking about my freestyle and how I honestly just remember the last 10 meters of that race or 10 yards. It was an amazing meet.

There are so many good memories and so many good feelings from it, and that's where so much of the fun and the love of the sport comes from, so whenever I need a little bit of that I always think back to that meet.

Q. And back to this meet, the schedule, having that 200 Free semi, 100 Back final. You said everything is the same as it was four years ago, but is the approach to that different now that you are four years older? The competition really has gotten tougher in both those events, especially the 100 Back here at Trials.
MISSY FRANKLIN: Absolutely. You know the approach isn't any different, because my approach has always been to do my best and take one thing at a time, and that's probably never going to change in my career, and so that's what I plan on doing this week, too.

Q. Missy, you said the one thing that's the same is you are your same bubbly self, but then you spoke of the frustrations. Did your effervescence ever ebb? It doesn't appear to us that it has, but how do you maintain that in the phrase of disappointment and frustration?
MISSY FRANKLIN: I think that's one of the things I learned is I always had this idea in my head of the person that I wanted to be when I was going through challenges and to be blatantly honest, when I was 17, I had never been through any main challenges. I mean, my career had been up and up and up. I had a wonderful family, a wonderful life. I had never really struggled before, in my own way but nothing compared to what I had been through the last couple of years, and so to have this opportunity, have God say all right, here's what I'm going to throw at you. You've said you are going to handle it one way. Let's see if you are really going to handle it that way. Then to feel like I did. To me, in my mind, that's me having already won in so many different ways.

That's a huge part in a huge kind of suit of armor that I have coming into this meet that I'm really proud to be wearing.

Q. Quickly you mentioned the data that you look at. It's hard for me to imagine that 17 year old looking at data before and after workouts or races. Is that one of the changes?
MISSY FRANKLIN: I think so, yeah! I did race video and stuff when I was 17 and when I was a bit younger but I'm really fascinated by kind of the data and Russell Mark at USA Swimming. They've been so helpful, and it's really fun to take a sport that seems so easy, like race and get your hand to the wall and dig it apart, and I think now Todd knows now that a lot of that stuff gives me confidence. Seeing some of the data and how much it's improved since we've been together and since we've been working together, and he knows that's something that gives me confidence going into my races and so that's been fun to keep an eye on here and there but I'm definitely not in there counting my tempo and my stroke rate.

Q. You probably don't think in these terms but when you left here in 2012 or when you were through at London. At any point did you maybe realize where you had set the bar and maybe what the expectations were going to be for these following years at all?
MISSY FRANKLIN: Definitely not. I never once thought about that. I think it's all about being in the moment and appreciating all the hard work you put in and it's paying off and that's what I did in 2012. I wasn't concerned at all at the bar I was setting because in my mind I'm not even trying to reach that same bar this time around, because I'm a different person, it's going to be a different Olympic Team, and I plan on setting a new bar at this meet. That's kind of almost unrelated to what I did in 2012 because everything is so different, and even though a lot of my goals are the same, there are so many different things that I'm striving for in each one of my races.

Q. Missy, I'm curious how the pressure is different now than it was four years ago, professional versus kind of proving yourself, coming into this building now compared to what it was like on 2012.
MISSY FRANKLIN: Well, I'm on the doors now, which is a pretty big deal! (Chuckles.) Okay, this is a secret I'm going to tell you guys. In 2012, I was so jealous of the swimmers that had the giant heads in the stands, and I'm really hoping they do that again and I really hope I have a head! That was really the major goal coming in! But I definitely think it's a little bit different. 2012 -- I had World's, in 2011, so I think I was a little bit more well know within the swimming community, but after Trials here it really kind of blew up in a way I couldn't have imagined.

So coming back I've had four years of how to deal with that, how to handle that and how to handle those pressures, and I quote this all the time because it's one of the greatest things a coach has said to me, but when Bob Bowman told me, you know, there are two ways to look at those expectations. You can look at it as pressure, or you can look at it as support. So this whole time having that practice of looking at those expectations as support of people really believing that I can do when I did in 2012 again, that's something that makes me feel so appreciated and so grateful to have that and makes me want to go out there and make those people proud for leaving in me.

Q. What about your being drafted by the globetrotters and tell us about your basketball skills.
MISSY FRANKLIN: This is so great! Scott brought my jersey today, so I have it, I'm so excited. So random, I got on Twitter, and I was was like, oh, that's awesome! So honored, that's so cool! To be a part of the celebrity draft is super, super fun, so I guess I am invited to training camp so it's definitely something I would love to do as my trainer would attest to, I'm not sure how my coordination on land is really going to transfer over, but I'm totally up for the try.

Q. (No microphone.)
MISSY FRANKLIN: How am I as a basketball player? Not bad. I got almost like a -- not down, not up, but, ehh, maybe with a little work.

Q. You said you don't -- you said you don't like to think about the bar you set for yourself in 2012.
MISSY FRANKLIN: Yeah.

Q. But it's been a while since you've gone best times in one of your better events, so what would it mean to get down there again right now?
MISSY FRANKLIN: It would mean so much and that's really the goal coming in here is I have times that I really think I'm capable of doing this summer, and right now I want to get as close to those times as I possibly can, and I'm hoping that gives me a spot on the team. But at the end of the day my goal is to go those times because that's me being as best as I possibly can be right now.

Q. Missy, when you come into a high-pressure meet like this, what's one of the first things you do to get your head ready and compete?
MISSY FRANKLIN: I colored yesterday. My parents got me a coloring book and that really helped. I think it's a lot about relaxing. I think that's one of the great things about coming into a meet so early is just being able to be here, to get as much energy as you can from the atmosphere, from your teammates, it's not every day that almost every single person you know is in the same spot.

So it's so fun seeing everyone, being together, seeing friends you haven't seen in a long time, seeing coaches and really taking energy from that and excitement and just kinda preparing yourself to have fun and swim fast!

Q. You're involved in Swim for Sight, I guess. How important is that to you? Is that something you want to keep doing for a long time?
MISSY FRANKLIN: Absolutely. I met Dr. Mike with the Jaycees back in March, and we were honored together and we started talking and he's just an incredible person for what he does, and basically he travels around the world and performs surgeries that take five minutes and cost $25, and he gives sight to people who have been blind their entire life, which I find is so incredible. I can't imagine not being able to see and all of the sudden, five minutes you can see everything around you.

I just can't imagine being able to do something like that and for him to dedicate his life, and his wife does so much work with him it was something I felt really, really passionate about so we came up for this idea with a pledge and every lap that I swim people can pledge money and we are basically raising money raise to afford those surgeries and give people their sight that they've never had before, and I'm actually hoping to go on a trip with him in the future. I think that would be really amazing, and that's been a really fun partnership and I would absolutely love for it to continue.

Q. So much of athletics is the positive. Athletes learn how to turn negatives into positives.
MISSY FRANKLIN: Absolutely.

Q. But I sense with you it comes naturally, that you've always been that way. I'm wondering, first of all, where that comes from in your upbringing or your formation of your personality and how much of an advantage is it that you don't have to trick yourself into being positive, that you just are.
MISSY FRANKLIN: You know, I think a lot of it is my parents. Ever since I was little, them teaching me that my failures are going to be my biggest learning opportunities and to not be afraid to fail because there is a reason why it's happening and if someone just succeeded all the time you're going to learn from your successes, but there's something that really comes along with failing and looking back and going over that and handling yourself, like I was talking about, in a way that you're going to be proud of walking away from that.

So I think a lot of it comes from my parents and, you know, a lot of it -- there are some times being honest whether you do have to fake it a little bit, where you are super frustrated and you just have to kinda put on that smile and say, you know what, it's going to be worth it, it's going to be worth it, I've learned something, like, now what are we going to do to fix it.

It's when you have to kind of force yourself to do that, it becomes second nature, and before you know it, that's just a part of who you are, and you don't even have to think about it. You take those disappointments and those failures and you turn them into something really positive.

Q. We talked to young swimmers this morning. This is their first experience. What would you want to tell the ones who are experiencing this for the first time and who could be part of the future of the sport?
MISSY FRANKLIN: It's so fun. I have a teammate that's going to be here and this is his first Olympic Trials and all leading up to it it's been so invigorating being with him because he has been so excited to be here. I mean, this is the tip-top. This is the epitome of USA Swimming, this meet right here, and to have someone be so excited, it's good because having it be my third time, I'm always excited, but then to see it from such a "fresh" view, I feel like those swimmers bring such a light to the pool deck, they bring such an energy and excitement that everyone can feed off of.

So it's so fun having them there and I would honestly just tell them to enjoy every second. Like I was talking about, it's really, really hard to recreate the feelings that you have here, so enjoy them while they last and to not be intimidated. They made it here on their own, they're supposed to be here, they've proved themselves and to go out there and swim like they're meant to be here.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Missy.

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