Swimmer Missy Franklin was a darling of the 2012 Olympics in London, when she captured five medals, four of them gold. Her personality didn't hurt: The 20-year-old is almost always laughing, even when she's up at 6 a.m. to train near her parents' house in Centennial, or crisscrossing the country for video shoots and competitions, part of her new life as a professional athlete.
Ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Franklin has picked up several endorsement deals, including Speedo, Minute Maid and Wheaties. She hasn't landed the cereal's prime promotional position just yet, but she told Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner she'd be "pretty excited" to get on a Wheaties box.
Read interview highlights below.
Franklin on her goals for the Olympics in Rio:
"Going into a meet, I never, ever set a medal goal. I never go in there thinking, 'I want to win this number of medals and I want them to be this color.' Because in my mind, that's me basing my goals on other people. I have no idea, and I have no control over what my competitors are going to do... and if I have no control over it, that's wasted energy."
On her academic goals:
"I'm majoring in psychology with hopefully a minor in education [at the University of California Berkeley]... I love going to classes... So I have two full years under my belt at Cal. I've been taking a scattering of online classes this year... The nice thing is, I know no matter what that I'm going to get my undergrad from Cal, and if it takes two [more] years, two and a half, I'm not in a crazy rush to get it done. So, I really just want to enjoy the experience of being a student there."
On her hobbies outside of swimming and school:
"I'm a photo albumer. I'm totally old school. I think photo albums are a totally lost art. I take a lot of time to print out the photos from Walgreens... and just getting big photo albums and putting them in there. It takes so little time and they're so fun to look back on."
