Champion swimmer Missy Franklin made a splash when she arrived at Berkeley in fall 2013.
The five-time Olympic medalist was committing her prodigious talents to the Cal Golden Bears swim team, refusing the lure of sponsorships and endorsement deals.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I felt challenged,” she told NewsCenter videographers Roxanne Makasdjian and Phil Ebiner in a new video that showcases her swimming and her reflections on campus life.
This is the last year Franklin will be competing with the Cal team. After this spring, following her long-established timetable, she’s going pro — though she says she’’ll continue her studies at Berkeley and will still train with the team.
As Franklin faces the next challenges — not just going pro but training for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — she also featured in a cover story in the current edition of Champion, the NCAA magazine. Under the title “Able to Stay Golden,” the magazine devotes 10 pages to the Missy Franklin saga, starting with her first splash in the pool as a 6-month-old.
Of her life at Berkeley, she tells the magazine:
“This is such a special time of my life, where I get to do what I love every single day, and I get to swim and wake up and go be with my friends and my team.”
And she add: “It really does give me the opportunity to walk around and be just a normal student, which I love.”
In the video, she tells the NewsCenter that it’s important to her to graduate, and imagines her next career after swimming.
A psychology major with plans to minor in education, she envisions becoming an elementary school teacher — kindergarten, and maybe special education.
“I will 100 percent do whatever I can do to get that diploma,” says Franklin.