{"id":21538,"date":"2013-07-31T00:32:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T22:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/franklin-follows-in-phelps-swimming-footsteps\/"},"modified":"2013-07-31T00:32:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T22:32:59","slug":"franklin-follows-in-phelps-swimming-footsteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/franklin-follows-in-phelps-swimming-footsteps\/","title":{"rendered":"Franklin follows in Phelps\u2019 swimming footsteps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t    <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/?attachment_id=11518\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11518\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11518 \" alt=\"Missy Franklin of the US competes in the women's 200m freestyle heats during the World Swimming Championships. Photo: Reuters\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/56f97_MissyFranklin3007e.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"227\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Missy Franklin of the US competes in the women\u2019s 200m freestyle heats during the World Swimming Championships. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p>American teenage swimming sensation <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/young-swimmers-aim-for-great-fina-heights\/\" target=\"_blank\">Missy Franklin<\/a> took another step towards matching <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/phelps-doubtful-about-diving-back-into-swimming\/\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Phelps\u2019<\/a> eight gold medal haul from the Beijing Olympics five years ago at the swimming world championships in <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Barcelona\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=41.3833333333,2.18333333333spn=0.1,0.1q=41.3833333333,2.18333333333 (Barcelona)t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">Barcelona<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old cruised into Tuesday\u2019s final of the 100 metres backstroke, registering the fastest time in the semi-finals of 59.31 seconds to suggest that she could even threaten Gemma Spofforth\u2019s world record from the world championships four years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Records though are not her principal target.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t thought about the world record,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to go out there, swim and have fun. I think when you reduce it down to a number you lose what it\u2019s really all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What does matter to the four-time gold medallist from the London Olympics last year is medals and she was given extra motivation by bumping into Phelps in the Catalan capital.<\/p>\n<p>The most decorated Olympian of all time is not competing in Barcelona after <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/phelps-doubtful-about-diving-back-into-swimming\/\" target=\"_blank\">retiring following the London Games<\/a>, but Franklin insists he still remains an inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw him yesterday and that was wonderful. We miss him so much, the team isn\u2019t the same without him, but we still have an incredible team and I think we are all excited to carry on his legacy.\u201d \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\">AFP<\/a><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/phelps-doubtful-about-diving-back-into-swimming\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/56f97_189372977_80_80.jpg\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/phelps-doubtful-about-diving-back-into-swimming\/\" target=\"_blank\">Phelps doubtful about diving back into swimming<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/r.zemanta.com\/?u=http%3A\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/story\/2013\/07\/29\/sp-olympics-michael-phelps-swimming.html%3Fcmp%3Drssa=189296019rid=ff0be05d-21a3-4745-831b-9204984a1472e=970acdfe2c94eeb97f72f5ed708a0ec5\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/56f97_189296019_80_80.jpg\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/r.zemanta.com\/?u=http%3A\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/story\/2013\/07\/29\/sp-olympics-michael-phelps-swimming.html%3Fcmp%3Drssa=189296019rid=ff0be05d-21a3-4745-831b-9204984a1472e=970acdfe2c94eeb97f72f5ed708a0ec5\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Phelps noncommittal about swimming future<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/olympics\/ci_23756532\/missy-franklin-top-qualifier-100-back-might-michael\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/56f97_189356318_80_80.jpg\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/olympics\/ci_23756532\/missy-franklin-top-qualifier-100-back-might-michael\" target=\"_blank\">Missy Franklin top qualifier in 100 back; might Michael Phelps return?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/56f97_zemified_h.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Missy Franklin of the US competes in the women\u2019s 200m freestyle heats during the World Swimming Championships. Photo: Reuters American teenage swimming sensation Missy Franklin took another step towards matching Michael Phelps\u2019 eight gold medal haul from the Beijing Olympics five years ago at the swimming world championships in Barcelona. The 18-year-old cruised into Tuesday\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-21538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}