Laueus Awards: Play Missy for me, please

Laueus Awards: Play Missy for me, please

KUALA LUMPUR - She revealed how she bumped into Mark Spitz in the lift and confessed she was wide-eyed with excitement as a full-blown "Fan Girl".

Then she flashed dazzling white teeth and laughed so loud it filled up an entire hall.

Missy Franklin is a tall bag of loud laughs and loud giggles.

She is a star, and it's not because she is the best backstroke sprinter in the world.

Not because she already owns four Olympic gold medals and is the first woman to win six events at a single world swimming championships.

Franklin is dazzling because she is fresh, engaging and sweet as pie.

Never flustered, she was game to chat away with the media that gathered around her in a swarm, hours before she became the youngest Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year last night at the Istana Budaya here in Kuala Lumpur.

Perhaps once her love affair with chlorinated water is over, she will go on to become a successful politician, but then again, I know she means what she says.

"I love what I do. One of my goals was to swim. But one of my goals is to also be a mum," she said.

"One of my biggest goals is to be a mum and have a family. Swimming doesn't define me. That's what sports has taught me actually."

The easy eloquence was remarkable for an 18-year-old college kid who also pokes fun at Spitz's missing moustache.

It is not often one gets to meet and talk to Edwin Moses, Michael Johnson and Franklin within the space of an hour.

If Moses and Johnson are already on track and field's Mt Rushmore, then I promise Franklin will soon take her place alongside Phelps and Spitz in swimming's rock-face.

Johnson, the only man to win the men's 200m and 400m at a single Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996), was a picture of cool and calm on Wednesday.

SERIOUS

But the Laureus Academy ambassador was also always serious, even detached.

The 400m world record-holder seemed to perk up when I asked him if the American sprinters would bite back against the Bolt-led Jamaican machine at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The 46-year-old said: "We'll start to see next year. The Jamaicans will continue to be tough. They'll still have Bolt and Blake (Yohan).

"And they've got an army of kids now who have been inspired by Bolt. Jamaica now have athletic systems in place, they've established training groups where previously their young sprinters had to come to US colleges to train.

"In the US, we have a unique collegiate system but, when the talent pool is weak, the US Track and Field Association can't step in because it's not a central athletic body like you have here in Malaysia."

Johnson says natural ability, mental strength, great coaching and being obsessive mould greatness.

"Great athletes obsess about finding the best methods, obsess over finding competition and are obsessed over failure and doing better and better," he explained.

Two-time 400m hurdles Olympic champion Moses (Montreal 1976, LA 1984) won 107 consecutive races between 1977 and 1987 and broke the world record four times.

He didn't care about being great.

"I'm just glad to be alive and that I wake up breathing. And I'm glad to be able to make a difference in the world," the chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy said.

One of track and field's greatest didn't seem interested to say much, simply describing sport as his "hobby".

Pursuing an education was almost certainly his big thing.

He studied physics and biomechanics and said he used what he learned to his advantage by tapping on heartbeat monitors and respiratory systems on computers to make him go faster.

That was as far as he would go, refusing to expand on what would have been at the time a revolutionary tool to become better.

Moses said it was a secret, but there just seems to be nothing secretive about the 1.85m-tall Franklin.

She still rejects prize money and endorsements to maintain her amateur status in college.

THREAT

She drooled over the burgeoning swimming talent coming out of China, not in the least bit bothered over the extra threat to her global treasure hunt.

She paid tribute to Serena Williams, her fellow nominee in Wednesday night, when she said: "I grew up watching the sisters play and they are great. It's a wonderful story and Serena represents all that is good about Laureus."

There was that trademark laugh again, when she was described as the "female Michael Phelps", and there was the typical erudite response, when she said: "I find that difficult to accept. There will never be another Michael Phelps. What Michael did was amazing and he has been so good to me.

"I'd just like to be known as the female Missy Franklin."

Maybe the atmosphere in which Franklin was schooled made life easier for her.

Maybe Moses and Johnson are simply serious men.

Then again, Franklin was quick to tell me she does own a deadly serious competitive instinct.

"I absolutely have a killer instinct. I call it a flip of the switch. I'm still having fun when I swim," she said.

"I always smile before a race because I want to remind myself to have fun.

"But I'm focused and want to win. Absolutely."

Dripping talent, armed with a killer instinct and charming, energetic and fun, swimmer Franklin sits easily in legendary company.

And anywhere else.

ROLL OF HONOUR

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR

SEBASTIAN VETTEL

(Germany) Motor Racing

SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR

MISSY FRANKLIN

(United States) Swimming

TEAM OF THE YEAR

BAYERN MUNICH

(Germany) Football

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

RAFAEL NADAL

(Spain) Tennis

BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR

MARC MARQUEZ

(Spain) Motor Cycling

ACTION SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR

JAMIE BESTWICK

(United Kingdom) BMX

SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR WITH A DISABILITY

MARIE BOCHET

(France) Skiing

SPIRIT OF SPORT AWARD

AFGHANISTAN CRICKET TEAM

(Afghanistan) Cricket

SPORT FOR GOOD AWARD

MAGIC BUS

(India) Charity

leonardt@sph.com.sg


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