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Missy Franklin
Missy Franklin won four gold medals and a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics at just 17 years old, becoming one of the breakout stars of those Games and one of the most decorated teenage swimmers in Olympic history, competing in an unusually demanding, backstroke-and-freestyle-heavy program across a single Olympics. Franklin's 200m backstroke gold in London came with a world record time, and her combination of technical backstroke ability and freestyle versatility made her one of the most complete all-around female swimmers of her generation, capable of competing at an elite level across multiple, physiologically distinct stroke disciplines. She made the notable decision to compete for the University of California, Berkeley in 2013 rather than turn professional immediately after her Olympic breakout, forgoing the endorsement income other Olympic stars typically pursued right after a gold-medal Games, in order to swim collegiately and complete a more traditional college experience first. Franklin added a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics before retiring from elite competition in 2018, and while injuries and the physical toll of her early, packed competition schedule shortened her career, her 2012 breakout remains one of the most statistically dominant single-Olympics performances by an American female swimmer.
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Ian Thorpe
Ian Thorpe made his international debut for Australia at 14 and, by the 2000 Sydney Olympics held on home soil, had become the country's biggest sporting star, winning three gold medals in front of a national audience that had built enormous expectations around him specifically because the Games were being held in his own country. Nicknamed "The Thorpedo," Thorpe was known for an unusually large size-17 shoe, generating additional propulsion through the water, and a distinctive stroke technique that let him dominate the 200m and 400m freestyle events through the early 2000s, an era when the men's freestyle events were among the most closely watched in the sport. Thorpe won five Olympic gold medals across the 2000 and 2004 Games, along with 11 World Championship titles, and his rivalry with American swimmer Michael Phelps at the 2004 Athens Olympics, particularly their 200m freestyle showdown, was billed as one of the most anticipated individual matchups of that entire Olympics. Thorpe retired from swimming in 2006 at just 24, citing a loss of motivation after achieving nearly everything possible in the sport by such a young age, and later spoke openly about depression and mental health struggles during and after his competitive career — conversations that helped normalize similar discussions among other elite athletes in the years that followed.
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