Two-time Olympic medalist Elizabeth Beisel is back and swimming fast. At the Santa Clara Pro Swim she nearly negative split every hundred of her 400 IM and it paid off, netting her silver in 4:40. Beisel being Beisel, a true Team USA leader, she was quick to shine light on the winner, Texas Longhorn Madisyn Cox.
How did Beisel swim so fast after such a long break? She credits her Bluefish club coach Chuck Bachelor and University of Florida coach Gregg Troy. With reputations for “honest work” in the pool, Beisel’s got enough base to bounce back and be factor over the next quad.
During Beisel’s eight months off, she stayed connected to the sport, joining the USA Swimming Foundation Board. Still, she wasn’t swimming. There was no swim practice, and she filled her time with travel, everywhere. Her globe-trotting took her to three continents.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
She swam the 400 IM very well for many years. She was thrilling to watch, because she seemed to pick up momentum as she moved through the 4 strokes. No one paced it better.
The USA needs some new faces in the 400 IM who can swim it in the low 4:30s like Beisel and DeRado.
Seems like a nice girl no doubt.
I’m not sure what the point of taking 8 months off is considering she is going to retire this year anyway. My guess is she’s just riding off the olympic contracts, speedo contract and stipend.
What’s kind of annoying about national team athlete’s when they retire is that they still accept stipend from USA swimming the next calendar year. That’s $40,000+ wasted on someone who is not motivated (this isn’t particularly directed at her)
Sure, it would be nice if they would forfeit the remainder of their stipend upon retiring, but come on, are you saying you wouldn’t do the same thing? Very few swimmers are retiring rich, I doubt anyone but Phelps, Lochte, Franklin, Ledecky*, and maybe Adrian have the luxury of being able to turn down $3k per month. Hell, having some residual income to provide stability while they transition into normal life is probably pretty nice.
*when she goes pro… although with her Olympic (and family) money, she likely doesn’t need it in the first place
This is honestly so true and scary
You’ve already stated the problem though, swimmers don’t make much money at all, the stipend could go to the next guy ranked behind them so that they could continue to swim.
You can get the stipend if you make the national team. Pretty good incentive right there.
If you did some kind of work for 12 months and presented it at the end of the 12th month, wouldn’t you expect to be able to bill for that work and be paid for it?
Great interview – she is such a positive Being – very good for Team Usa to still have her on board . Her 8 months off swimming seems to have boosted her life value . Great perspective .
always love hearing her speak in interviews. most bubbly and positive person on the US National team I imagine.
“it’s good to know that after swimming… I’ll be OK” is the best quote I’ve heard in a while. so true…
All about that base, no treble
Lol love it!