{"id":305675,"date":"2018-04-13T04:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=305675"},"modified":"2018-04-13T07:04:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T14:04:55","slug":"why-allison-schmitt-came-back-to-swimming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/why-allison-schmitt-came-back-to-swimming\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Allison Schmitt Came Back to Swimming"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Between her second Olympic Games and her third, Allison Schmitt<\/strong> confronted dark demons, a post-Olympic letdown that became depression. She lost some of her charismatic spunk, and her swimming suffered. For two years, she failed to qualify for the No. 1 U.S. national team.<\/p>\n

In the spring of 2015, she went public with the issues she was dealing with. \u201cIt\u2019s okay not to be okay,\u201d she said often. She resolved to help others deal with their own mental health issues, making plans to go back to school to get her masters degree in social work.<\/p>\n

In the pool, she began to find her form again. She won the 2015 national title in the 200 free\u2014her first such win in three years\u2014and then, in June 2016, she qualified for the Rio Games, finishing fourth in the 200 free and fifth in the 100 free at Olympic Trials. She added two more medals to her collection, a gold and a silver, giving her eight total for her career.<\/p>\n

But during the entire process of training for, qualifying for and swimming in Rio, Bob<\/strong> Bowman<\/strong> sensed something different. He had coached Schmitt since 2007, and for all those years, he had seen a true joy in her swimming\u2014a love for the process of pushing herself to be the best and even her interactions with the water. Before Rio, that was gone.<\/p>\n

At Olympic Trials, he saw a swimmer \u201cparalyzed by fear.\u201d For Schmitt, qualifying was a relief more than anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe got her medal and went, which was a huge accomplishment considering what she went through in the years before that,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI don\u2019t think she ended up loving swimming.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before and during those Olympics, Schmitt had every intention to be done with the sport for good. She had counted down her practices before the Olympics, and she specifically remembered \u201cmy last December 28 practice ever,\u201d which happened to be a set of 10×500 free.<\/p>\n

For all practical purposes, after she helped the U.S. women\u2019s 4×200 free relay team win Olympic gold, she was retired\u2014but she never filed official papers to remove herself from anti-doping tests.<\/p>\n

===<\/p>\n

Bowman asked several times when Schmitt would make her departure from the sport official. She brushed it off\u2014eventually, she\u2019d get around to it, she said. But as the months dragged on, she still had not filed the paperwork, and swimming began trickling back into her life. Not full-on training, but a solo swim or masters practice at Arizona State, where Bowman coached (with Schmitt\u2019s brother Derek<\/strong> as an assistant) and Schmitt was in graduate school.<\/p>\n

Then Schmitt asked to train with the Sun Devil team a few days per week to stay in shape, so Bowman got a waiver from the school to allow that. And it escalated.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe started coming three or four times a week, just on her own, no pressure, so that kind of tipped me off that it was more than just staying in shape,\u201d Bowman said.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"allison-schmitt-2018-200free-apss-mesa3\"

Photo Courtesy: Brooke Wright<\/p><\/div>\n

The Schmitt that was coming to practice was the teenager Bowman invited to join his post-grad group at Club Wolverine a decade earlier\u2014goofy, smiling, telling jokes, chatting with the other swimmers in her lane. Time away had been medicine, and her love of swimming that had seeped away before Rio was alive again.<\/p>\n

In the fall, Schmitt\u2019s good friend Michael Phelps<\/strong> posted a photo on Instagram suggesting she was serious about making a run at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Schmitt brushed it off, \u201cno way,\u201d but a few weeks later she found herself in Bowman\u2019s office, seriously considering just the proposition Phelps had suggested<\/p>\n

Bowman told Schmitt that if she was serious about a return, she needed to be all-in by the start of 2018. There could be no half-in-half-out attitude. Schmitt agreed, and she took on a full training schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I still got it.\u2019 It was rough, it was hard to keep up, but it was fun,\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t making the intervals, getting last. I feel like I\u2019m younger again and enjoying it just like I was when I was up-and-coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

===<\/p>\n

Three months after ramping up her training, Schmitt made plans to return to competition for the first time since the Olympics at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Mesa, Arizona. Shortly before the meet, she asked Bowman, \u2018What\u2019s a goal?\u2019<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old had no clue how fast she would swim, and her Mesa races would be the starting point. Beginning the meet with the 200 free, the event where she won her only individual Olympic gold in 2012, Schmitt swam a prelims time of 2:00.76. Reacting to that swim, Bowman gave it an \u201cA.\u201d<\/p>\n

At night, she swam even quicker, touching in 1:59.57 to finish just four tenths behind 2016 Olympic teammate Leah<\/strong> Smith<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really had no idea what to expect,\u201d Schmitt said. \u201cComing back and just racing, having fun and doing it for the joy of it was the ultimate goal, and that\u2019s what I did. Having a good race like that was definitely a highlight, and it was a great starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Schmitt thoroughly enjoyed herself. Before coming back, she feared that most of the people she swam with on the U.S. national team had all retired, but she swam in a heat with four of her Olympic teammates from Rio: Smith, ASU training partner Cierra Runge<\/strong> and former Georgia teammates Hali Flickinger<\/strong> and Melanie<\/strong> Margalis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"allison-schmitt-interview-2018-apss-mesa\"

Photo Courtesy: Brooke Wright<\/p><\/div>\n

She smiled before the race when she waved to the crowd and after she touched the wall. She laughed and joked when she visited the media tent. While there, she admitted that she stores her medals under her bed, and she also revealed the real reason she held off on signing her retirement papers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was for health insurance,\u201d she said. \u201cI was 26 and off my parents\u2019 health insurance, so I still needed that USOC health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why did she laugh her way through the interview? Because that was part of the process of a swim meet, the process that wore on her in the years before the last Olympics and made her believe she was done with the sport. Now, it felt pure and fresh.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the 18 months off swimming completely, it\u2019s definitely a new fresh perspective,\u201d Schmitt said. \u201cI was able to see what life was like without swimming, and I\u2019m very lucky to be able to come back and compete without injury. I\u2019m excited about that and excited to see what happens in the future.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whenever a swimmer of Schmitt\u2019s caliber returns to the sport, the word \u201cOlympics\u201d pops up, and sure, that\u2019s something on Schmitt\u2019s mind, the Tokyo Games in four years. If she were to make the team, she would join a select group of American women who have qualified for four Olympic Games\u2014Jill Sterkel<\/strong>,\u00a0Dara Torres<\/strong>,\u00a0Jenny<\/strong> Thompson\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Amanda Beard<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But Schmitt insisted she has to think about her swimming one day at a time\u2014a clich\u00e9, but for her, accurate. After her buildup to Rio, a process she was constantly ready to end, she knows she must enjoy this one. That\u2019s why she came back, because she realized that with all she has on her plate\u2014her school work and her desire to help others dealing with mental health issues\u2014she still wanted to swim.<\/p>\n

Thursday night in Mesa, at her first swim meet almost two years, Allison Schmitt laughed and joked like she used to. Already, the comeback was worth it.<\/p>\n

Video Interview with Allison Schmitt:<\/strong><\/h3>\n