59 Facts About Missy Franklin

Melissa Franklin Johnson was born on May 10,1995 and is an American former competition swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist.

Missy Franklin formerly held the world record in the 200-meter backstroke.

Missy Franklin swept the women's backstroke events, winning gold in both the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke.

Missy Franklin's successes have earned her Swimming World's World Swimmer of the Year and the American Swimmer of the Year award in 2012 as well as the FINA Swimmer of the Year Award in 2011 and 2012.

Missy Franklin's eleven gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships was a record in women's swimming before Katie Ledecky broke it in 2017.

Missy Franklin holds dual American and Canadian citizenship, and chose to compete for the US national swim team.

When she was a baby, her mother was very worried about water safety, so Missy Franklin started swimming purely because her parents wanted her to get comfortable with the water.

Missy Franklin grew up in Aurora, Colorado, and began taking swimming classes there at the age of five, at the urging of her mother.

Missy Franklin attended Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colorado, and graduated in 2013.

Missy Franklin's father, Dick, was born in St Catharines, Ontario.

Missy Franklin's mother suggested that her daughter consider competing for Canada to ease the pressure of qualifying for the US National Team due to the competitive depth of American swimmers.

Missy Franklin chose to represent the United States, citing her patriotism for her homeland.

Missy Franklin has been coached by Todd Schmitz from the Colorado Stars club team since she was 7 years old.

At Cal, Missy Franklin is a four-time individual NCAA champion: winning the 200-yard freestyle in 2014 and 2015, and the 200-yard backstroke and individual medley in 2015.

Missy Franklin won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female swimmer in 2015, as well as the Honda Cup awarded to the nation's top female athlete.

Missy Franklin graduated with a degree in religion from the University of Georgia in December 2019.

At the age of seven, Missy Franklin joined the Colorado Stars travel swim team.

At the age of twelve, Missy Franklin began competing against girls who were much older than her.

At the age of 13, Missy Franklin competed at the 2008 US Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, but did not qualify to swim in any events at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

At the 2010 National Championships, Missy Franklin competed in six individual events, and qualified to swim at the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships by finishing second in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke.

At the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Missy Franklin finished fourth in the 100-meter backstroke and did not make the A final for the 50- and 200-meter backstroke.

Missy Franklin earned the first international medals of her career at the 2010 FINA Short Course World Championships in Dubai.

Swimming the second leg, Missy Franklin had a split of 52.99, the second-best among all participants.

Missy Franklin won her first individual medal, a bronze, in the 50-meter backstroke, finishing behind Russian Anastasia Zuyeva and Japanese Aya Terakawa.

Swimming the freestyle leg, Missy Franklin had a split of 52.79, the fastest in the field.

Missy Franklin was named the best female swimmer for 2011 by FINA Aquatics World Magazine.

Three days after the 2011 World Aquatics Championships ended in Shanghai on July 30, Missy Franklin traveled to Palo Alto, California to compete at the 2011 National Championships, which began on August 2.

Missy Franklin placed fourth in the 200-meter individual medley and twelfth in the 50-meter freestyle.

Towards the end of 2011 in October, at the 2011 FINA Swimming World Cup, Missy Franklin set the first world record of her career in the 200-meter backstroke, bettering the previous record of 2:00.13 held by Shiho Sakai with a time of 2:00.03.

In breaking the record, Missy Franklin became the first female to break an individual world record since the high-tech bodysuits were banned in January 2010.

Swimming the freestyle leg, Missy Franklin had a split of 51.32.

Missy Franklin would be given one hour a day and within that hour she had to be at that exact location, in case they would come to drug test her.

Missy Franklin started training for the London Olympics with Kara Lynn Joyce on the Colorado stars swim team.

Swimming the lead-off leg, Missy Franklin had a personal best of 53.52 seconds and the team finished with a total time of 3:34.24, an American record.

Swimming the lead-off leg, Missy Franklin posted a time of 1:55.96 and the US team finished with a time of 7:42.92, a new American record.

Missy Franklin was able to bounce back from that performance, and in her fourth and last individual event held the following day, the 200-meter backstroke, Missy Franklin won her second individual gold of the Olympics with a world record time of 2:04.06, bettering Kirsty Coventry's record of 2:04.81.

In winning the 200-meter backstroke, Missy Franklin became the first American female to win the event at the Olympics since Melissa Belote did in 1972, forty years earlier.

Swimming the backstroke leg, Missy Franklin recorded a time of 58.50 seconds, and the US team went on to set the world record with a time of 3:52.05, besting the Chinese-owned record of 3:52.19 set in 2009.

Missy Franklin was named the best female swimmer for 2012 by FINA Aquatics World Magazine.

At the meet, Missy Franklin won six gold medals, setting a new record for the most golds won by a female swimmer at a single edition of the World Championships.

Missy Franklin was over a second behind Australia's lead-off Cate Campbell, but teammates Natalie Coughlin and Shannon Vreeland made up some ground and anchor Megan Romano overtook the Australian team in the last 20 meters to give the Americans the gold medal.

Swimming the anchor leg and diving in with a deficit of over a second, Missy Franklin was able to track down Australian Alicia Coutts, recording a split of 1:54.27 and the team finishing with a time of 7:45.14.

Swimming the backstroke leg, Missy Franklin recorded a time of 58.39.

At the 2014 US National Championships, Missy Franklin won the 100-meter backstroke with the third fastest American time ever, leading a sweep of the event by Cal Berkeley swimmers.

Missy Franklin won the 200-meter backstroke and the 100-meter freestyle, and finished second in the 200-meter freestyle behind Katie Ledecky.

Missy Franklin won her only individual medal in the 100-meter backstroke by finishing third with a time of 1:00.30.

At the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia, Missy Franklin competed in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke, the 100- and 200-meter freestyle, and four relay events.

Missy Franklin finished fifth in the final of the 100-meter backstroke.

Missy Franklin competed in four events: 100- and 200-meter backstroke; 100- and 200-meter freestyle.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics Missy Franklin tied for 13th place in the 200m freestyle semifinals, with a time of 1:57.56, and did not make the cut for the finals.

Missy Franklin placed 7th in the 200 meter backstroke for her heat in the semifinals and did not make the finals.

Missy Franklin announced her retirement from the sport of swimming on December 19,2018.

Missy Franklin is an ambassador to the USA Swimming Foundation and is working on the Saving Lives Is Always in Season national campaign.

Missy Franklin was raised Christian but did not attend church or identify as religious until reading the Bible and taking theology classes in high school.

Missy Franklin had already practiced yoga recreationally for three years, but learning about its Hindu roots in college made it a more spiritual experience for her.

Missy Franklin got engaged to Hayes Johnson, who swam at the University of Texas, on September 22,2018.

Missy Franklin appeared in a March 2013 episode of Pretty Little Liars as herself.

Missy Franklin is the subject of the 2014 documentary Touch the Wall along with Kara Lynn Joyce.

Missy Franklin had a cameo in the big-budget comedy The Internship, starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.