Olympic champion and former Cal Golden Bear Missy Franklin was elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF) Class of 2026 Enshrinement Dinner, presented in part by KNBR 680 AM, will be held on Thursday, May 14 at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco. The Class of 2026 inductees also includes Missy Franklin, Jack Clark (Rugby), Brandon Crawford (Baseball), Eddie Hart (Track & Field) and Jesse Sapolu (Football).
Franklin is one of the most celebrated and decorated female athletes in swimming history. The seven-time NCAA champion, five-time Olympic gold medalist and former world-record holder had immense success at both the collegiate and international levels and became an American icon at a very young age.
Franklin joined the Bears in 2014 and made an immediate impact, winning the NCAA championship in the 200-yard freestyle with an American-record time and anchoring the 800 freestyle relay team to an NCAA title to earn Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors. As a sophomore, Missy Franklin was named the 2015 NCAA and Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year while also winning the Honda Award, given to the top female swimmer in the country. She also won three individual NCAA titles and two relays that year, including another American-record effort in the 200 free. Franklin etched her name into seven different top-10 program lists, including the school records in the 100 free and 200 free. She was also a standout in the classroom and was named a CSCAA Scholar All-American as well as a Pac-12 All-Academic honoree.
Missy Franklin’s international career began at the age of 16, when she won five medals (including three gold) at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships and broke two world records on behalf of Team USA. At 17, she burst onto the Olympic scene by winning four gold medals at the 2012 Summer Games in London and added two more world records to her resume to go along with a Swimming World‘s World Swimmer of the Year award and back-to-back FINA Swimmer of the Year and Golden Goggles awards in 2011 and 2012. Franklin collected a record six gold medals at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships and added five more podiums in 2015 to bring her career medal count to 17.