{"id":500153,"date":"2022-03-18T20:06:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T03:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=500153"},"modified":"2022-03-18T21:00:05","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T04:00:05","slug":"taylor-ruck-surges-to-spectacular-200-freestyle-victory-cementing-road-back-from-eating-disorder-with-first-ncaa-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/taylor-ruck-surges-to-spectacular-200-freestyle-victory-cementing-road-back-from-eating-disorder-with-first-ncaa-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Ruck Surges to Spectacular 200 Freestyle Victory Cementing Road Back From Eating Disorder With First NCAA Title (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was Taylor Ruck<\/strong>\u2019s moment. It wasn\u2019t about Stanford needing points against Virginia. It wasn\u2019t about Lia Thomas<\/strong> and the transgender swimming debate. It was about Taylor Ruck and her resurgence into the world\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

After struggling through the pandemic, with an eating disorder and a disappointing couple of years in the water, Taylor Ruck is back and showed that with a dominating performance to win the 200 freestyle.<\/p>\n

With so much talk surrounding transgender swimmer Lia Thomas of Penn, who won the 500 freestyle, Ruck dominated the field that included Thomas to earn her first individual NCAA championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite the few minutes. I was pretty nervous before, like every race. I just tried to think of what I did in prelims and see if I could to top it. I tried to do my race strategy, do my breathing before and try not to let the nerves overcome me. I think that was one of my favorite races I\u2019ve ever done with the crowd going crazy and my teammates hugging me afterward,\u201d Taylor Ruck said.<\/p>\n

Ruck won the race in 1:41.12 to hold off Cal\u2019s Isabel Ivey<\/strong> (1:41.59) and break the pool record in the event. Thomas finished tied for fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly I just came into this meet wanting to focus on my own performances. I know there was a bit of chatter about Lia being here. But usually I just try to zone everything out and focus on what I can do to be the best I can be on that very day,\u201d Ruck said. \u201cComing into today, I was just thinking competition is competition. I was excited to be able to race some people who were so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Results<\/a><\/p>\n

Taylor Ruck\u2019s time was eighth-fastest in history, something she showed a glimpse of with a 1:40 relay split in the 800 free relay on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

But with the focused attention on this race, and it being the first of her two events on the night, it was sensational.<\/p>\n

Ruck made the past two Olympic teams for Canada and talked about a struggle with a severe eating disorder in between those two Games.<\/p>\n

She went on to have an OK Canadian Trials and an OK performance at the Olympics, far from the phenom that made the Olympics at 16, or the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships where she topped Olympic gold medalists Katie Ledecky<\/strong> and Ariarne Titmus<\/strong><\/a> head-to-head in the 200 free.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly has been a journey since Pan Pacs. Lots of downs, more than the ups. I think the past few years have just been very hard for everyone,\u201d Taylor Ruck said. \u201cEveryone has had their own path and journey through it, and mine happens to be through an eating disorder. I\u2019m happy to say I\u2019m more on the other side of that struggle and I\u2019m open to talking about it with anybody. If anybody is going through the same things, It does get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruck went on to make her second Olympic team in Tokyo, and although the meet didn\u2019t go quite as well as she had hoped, she brought her career Olympic medal total to four, and it was a huge stepping stone toward her success just months later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think building the energy back up from that, it takes a long time,\u201d Taylor Ruck said of her eating disorder. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to not put a time limit on how you recover from one. It will come when it comes. I think that\u2019s been an important mental thing that I\u2019ve had to keep I the back of my mind. The energy has been building up that whole year. Just fueling my body has been very important and being surrounded by people who support that, too\u2026 (Mentality, stressful in 2019) Remembering that, I think that got me hyped for this meet, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic didn\u2019t make things easier for Ruck, who had to isolate at the Canadian border before moving in with her grandparents for a while, then having to quarantine again when she moved to the High Performance Centre in Toronto to train for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

She took an Olympic redshirt year to train, then once the pandemic hit, she did the same thing again, keeping her away from her Stanford teammates for two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like how you said \u2018piece of the puzzle\u2019 because it kind of feels like it\u2019s being completed in a way. Leaving Stanford for the first time was really hard. Once I was in Canada, I realized the foundation I built at Stanford. It was hard leaving my friends and my family\u2026 I\u2019m just so grateful to be a part of it and witness it and just be able to support everybody as they go through the season,\u201d Taylor Ruck said.<\/p>\n