Behind the Gold: Raising an Olympian and Beyond (ft. Richard Franklin)

Welcome to Girl Dad Nation! In this episode, I sit down with Richard Franklin, the proud father of five-time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin. As a fellow girl dad, I'm excited to delve into Richard's experiences raising Missy and navigating the waters of fatherhood.

Join us as Richard opens up about becoming a dad at 50 and the unexpected joys and challenges that came with it. From early swim lessons to cheering Missy on at competitions around the world, Richard shares the highs and lows of their journey with heartfelt sincerity.

We'll explore the sacrifices Richard and his family made to support Missy's dreams, from early morning practices to financial investments in her training. But beyond the medals and accolades, Richard emphasizes the importance of fostering a love for the sport and prioritizing Missy's happiness above all else.

Through our conversation, you'll gain valuable insights into the profound impact a father's love and support can have on a child's journey to greatness. So grab your goggles and dive in with us as we celebrate the incredible bond between a father and his daughter.

LINKS

https://www.missyfranklin.com/

Missy Franklin: No one should die waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant

How a small Olympic miracle rescued swimmer Missy Franklin's dad | NBC Sports

Girl Dad Nation is made possible by the generous support of our listeners and my wife, Executive Producer of my daughters and this podcast. 

Transcript

**Transcript Auto-Generated**

00:00:01:01 - 00:00:25:10
Matthew Krekeler
Welcome to Girl Dad Nation, where we celebrate the joys and challenges of raising strong daughters. And I'm a new Girl Dad. But it's great whenever I have a veteran girl dad on the podcast. And today I've got Richard Franklin, father of five time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin. This is a great episode. You're going to love it. And to use a swimming pun, let's dive in.

00:00:27:20 - 00:00:40:03
Matthew Krekeler
Hey, Richard, welcome to the show. Thank you for being my girl. Dad Nation.

00:00:40:21 - 00:00:45:06
Richard Franklin
Thank you. It's a it's a pleasure to be here. I hope I can help.

00:00:46:03 - 00:01:14:11
Matthew Krekeler
It's awesome to get connected to you. You are Missy Franklin, Dad. And I remember watching her in the Olympics and just an amazing swimmer, amazing athlete. And also really amazing role model for young women and what she's going on now. Now she's a mother and then continues philanthropy and all these other amazing outreach things in the community.

00:01:14:15 - 00:01:16:17
Richard Franklin
Yeah, we're very we're very proud of her.

00:01:17:03 - 00:01:25:13
Matthew Krekeler
Can we rewind the timeline? What was going through your mind when you first became a dad?

00:01:26:15 - 00:02:00:07
Richard Franklin
You know, being a first time dad. Not a lot. You know, we didn't know what to expect. We were older parents. So I was I was 50 years old when Missy was born. You know, so we lived a pretty fulfilling and fast life pace, you know, prior to Missy. And it only got faster after she was born.

00:02:00:16 - 00:02:10:06
Matthew Krekeler
So you mentioned you were 50 at the time. Were you hoping for a child? Was it kind of a surprise like. Yeah. What was that like?

00:02:10:19 - 00:02:59:05
Richard Franklin
No, she was very definitely planned. We thought about it long and hard. And her mom was 46. So we like I said, we were you know, we'd already been very driven professionals traveling all the time, working all the time. And in fact, I'd I've often reflected back and I've said this to other fathers. In retrospect, I probably would have been a less than optimal father if I'd had her when I was 25 or 30 than when I was 15.

00:03:00:07 - 00:03:30:10
Richard Franklin
When you're 25 or 35, you're chasing the corporate ladder. You're trying to get there. That CEO position you're on flying around in corporate jets, one country to another. And I barely saw my wife, let alone being able to see a child. There all that, you know, all that had come and gone. And at 50 and we were pretty settled where we were financially.

00:03:30:10 - 00:04:06:23
Richard Franklin
We were in great shape and we were in Colorado. It was the first place we lived anywhere for longer than five years. So we were settled geographically. And consequently, when Missy was born, we had two people with half a century of life experiences and six degrees between the two of us that were fully ready to put all all that we could into this new human being.

00:04:08:06 - 00:04:20:09
Matthew Krekeler
That's great. So how did life change at that point when you brought Missy home? Like, why? What was your mind shift? Did your priorities change all that kind of stuff?

00:04:20:20 - 00:04:52:13
Richard Franklin
Yeah, because we had more we had more flexibility because we had more latitude over our over our life, over our careers. And we could we could manage our own destiny. So not a lot changed. Day of course, being a doctor and couldn't be a family doctor anymore. I mean, we weren't going to wait all this time to have a child and then decide to take her in a day, daycare.

00:04:53:19 - 00:05:50:02
Richard Franklin
So she she quit medicine. And at least for the first seven or eight years, she did nothing but look after that child, 24 by seven. So Missy had had a full time mom that didn't have to work, that didn't have to make money. It didn't have to go anywhere every day. Right. With her nurturing her teaching or educating her make making, making her grow and mature and experience the best the best youth that she could, because we're firmly we're firm firmly in belief that the child or a human being's fundamental, idiosyncratic profiles are formed in the first six months.

00:05:51:21 - 00:06:17:19
Richard Franklin
And how that child's going to be and how they're going to react and how they're going to deal with life and what their personalities are going to be like in terms of outgoing or or or inward or outward, whether they're whether they're humorous or sincere or serious. A lot of those things really solidify by the time they're five or six.

00:06:17:21 - 00:06:30:05
Richard Franklin
You know, from there, they develop onward. But we wanted we wanted to have the maximum impact we could as those very important months of maturity were coming along.

00:06:32:00 - 00:06:38:02
Matthew Krekeler
And then what did you learn in those first early years? Like the first five years of Missy growing up?

00:06:39:21 - 00:07:10:17
Richard Franklin
Well, you know, I you know, I was still very much in the consulting role. I was doing a lot of mentoring and a lot of coaching and a lot of judging in the entrepreneurial, clean tech space. So I was in demand so I could manage my time that people needed me to be in a certain place at a certain time, first for a presentation or for coaching or for whatever.

00:07:10:17 - 00:07:39:20
Richard Franklin
I could set the time, I could set the schedules and I could set the locations according to what we were doing with Missy at that time. And, you know, and making sure that her needs were prioritized. So, I mean, the first five years in terms of Missy and a lot of the way and the way it, you know, ultimately ended up, it was a slow burn in that first five years.

00:07:39:20 - 00:08:18:12
Richard Franklin
And then after that, you know, the athletics, the sports, the multiple sports getting her engaged in every possible sport, possible from skiing to soccer to basketball to swimming to volleyball. I mean, she loved it all. And, you know, her mother took her to infant drown proofing when she was a year and a half because day being born in Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic.

00:08:20:00 - 00:08:49:09
Richard Franklin
Nova Scotians don't all swim that well because the water's so cold up there. Yeah. Yeah. And and not a lot of pools because it's can. And so she never learned how to swim that well. And she she wanted Missy number one to learn how to swim very quickly. Number two, for safety protocols, make sure she had infant drown proofing and coaching and training.

00:08:49:20 - 00:09:15:14
Richard Franklin
And number three, got a love for the water, not a fear for the water at a very early age. And so swim lessons started. One and a half and continued in Australia. Right, right. And then, you know, and then she started competing and she couldn't compete until she was five. And then when the competing started, it just snowballed from there.

00:09:15:15 - 00:09:47:06
Richard Franklin
So our time and our our dedication and and support it just had to multiply, you know, just over, over time. It just got more intense and more increased. And, and it was one level we thought was pretty busy. And and just the Rocky Mountain Swim League. That was great. And, you know, then then there was the high school competition and that was great.

00:09:47:06 - 00:10:15:04
Richard Franklin
And there was junior nationals and then with the Nationals, then with the Olympic teams. So swim, swim meets, you know, used to go from swim meets on a weekend in Fort Collins to a week in Shanghai. So the world championships, you know, I mean, just night and day in terms of time, money, travel support, etc., etc., etc..

00:10:16:02 - 00:10:40:02
Matthew Krekeler
Well, I think like getting kids involved in swimming is such a great skill to teach them even if they don't go on to compete. But like my three kids right now are in swim lessons and even the youngest, she's almost one. But we started her before she turned one at about eight or nine months, just getting in the water with us, trying to get her to float on her back and that kind of stuff.

00:10:40:02 - 00:11:00:06
Matthew Krekeler
And then my four year olds like starting to learn the different techniques using your arms and legs and yeah, we all get in the pool and each one of us like, you know, we have a child in and and they're really liking it right now. So I don't know if they're driven to compete, but yeah, it's just a fun family activity for us right now.

00:11:00:19 - 00:11:24:09
Richard Franklin
Well, that's what it should be right now. It shouldn't be about competition. You don't want to put that can kind of mental stress on them winning and losing at their ages. I mean, all we talked to Missy about was having fun. Always, always, always. And if she did lose in the pool, we'd ask you the same question. Did you do your best?

00:11:24:23 - 00:11:43:03
Richard Franklin
Yep. Then great stories over, you know. Yeah. I mean, there was no. Oh, too bad. She that's that's that's a shame you lost that. Those, those kind of comments would never come out of our mouths, especially to a young child.

00:11:44:12 - 00:12:05:13
Matthew Krekeler
I love that. Just focusing on just doing the best that you can, you know, being proud parents no matter what. Like I. I love everything that my kids do. And when they're proud of themselves, like, they bring over a craft from school or something. And to accept that with the same love that they that went into making it, I think is amazing.

00:12:05:21 - 00:12:29:16
Matthew Krekeler
And then I saw an interview with Missy just recently on YouTube where she looked back at like her first competition, and she said that before she dove in the water, she she just heard from you, like, go have fun. And and just the way that even back then she remembers that, you know, decades later, I think is a great thing.

00:12:30:11 - 00:13:00:04
Richard Franklin
That's great. And that's great for for young fathers like you to to hear that kind of thing, because it it says to you just how important your words are to those children at that stage of their development. You might at the time think it's a very casual comment. But don't underestimate the power that it holds in a young child's mind.

00:13:01:17 - 00:13:26:16
Matthew Krekeler
And then I read to you that you have a sports background playing professional football. And at what point did why did you give it a go to just train? Yeah. Like, when did Missy make that decision? That she wanted to compete at a higher level, wanted to even train for the Olympics? Do you remember that conversation?

00:13:27:15 - 00:14:08:21
Richard Franklin
Very well. Very well. I mean, the fact that she was in all these different sports was both it was both a natural instinct in terms of she liked all sports and was good at all of them, you know, and the other the other point was, is that we didn't want to we didn't want to push or channel or or or try to move her in any one direction because of what we thought was right.

00:14:09:09 - 00:14:40:01
Richard Franklin
We it had to come from her and it all, except for one exception, gymnastics, you know, I mean, when she was trying out for gymnastics, not trying out, but just doing gymnastics as a child, she was getting into it, enjoying it along with her other sports and, you know, there was there was one day when I said to her, I said, honey, you know, how many six foot gymnast do you know?

00:14:42:18 - 00:15:01:19
Richard Franklin
And she thought about it for a minute because she was I mean, she was always this tall girl, you know, size 15 feet. She was six feet by the time she was 12, you know, six foot two by the time she was 13. You know, I mean, she would have been she would have been a obliterated as a as a gymnast.

00:15:02:20 - 00:15:14:13
Richard Franklin
So that one, we only use just our our sense of sports and physiology g to say, you know, that's that's a dead end street that.

00:15:14:13 - 00:15:20:07
Matthew Krekeler
Everybody's picturing like Shawn Johnson who's not all that tall. I'm an amazing athlete. Yeah.

00:15:20:17 - 00:15:32:11
Richard Franklin
Yeah. I've got a picture of let me see if I can pull up for you because I was looking at it the other day. Shawn Johnson, by the way, is is right here in Denver. Right here in Nashville.

00:15:33:09 - 00:15:33:22
Matthew Krekeler
Oh, great.

00:15:34:09 - 00:15:35:03
Richard Franklin
Yeah, she's.

00:15:36:00 - 00:15:43:23
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, they're an amazing couple, too. And I follow their work and they have a podcast, everything about parenting and stuff in D.C..

00:15:43:23 - 00:15:45:08
Richard Franklin
This there's Missy in Chicago.

00:15:45:08 - 00:15:52:21
Matthew Krekeler
Wow, that's amazing. Can you hold that up just slightly? Oh, yeah.

00:15:53:00 - 00:15:57:18
Richard Franklin
Was you get the point about the difference in in talent anatomy.

00:15:59:05 - 00:16:02:12
Matthew Krekeler
And that must have been the London Games in 2012.

00:16:02:23 - 00:16:46:05
Richard Franklin
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's a wonderful young lady now and they're good friends and now they're both in Nashville. So it's that's a lot of fun. But everything else, everything else we wanted to to experience on her own, see what she'd done, what she liked. She was good at everything. And just recently, only about two weeks ago, I just finished reading a research report about young children and multiple sports and how it can be deleterious to the child's physiology as they grow older.

00:16:46:23 - 00:17:18:12
Richard Franklin
To push them or to focus them on one sport only because one sport only means you are constantly pushing the same muscle tissue, the same skeletal pressures on that young still forming body and then multiple sports. You know, there's I mean, running has a whole different stress on your body than skiing. Skiing as a whole. Different stress on your body than swimming.

00:17:19:00 - 00:17:34:18
Richard Franklin
So when you get the right and I found it very interesting, we didn't do it for that reason. We just wanted to have fun, you know? Yeah. One day, oh, she was skiing since she was three because we lived in Colorado.

00:17:34:19 - 00:17:39:17
Matthew Krekeler
It's great. Yeah. And I want to get my four year old out skiing this year, hopefully.

00:17:40:02 - 00:18:02:20
Richard Franklin
Yeah, Missy. Missy loved it from day one. And then I think she was ten or 11 and she came home one day after a great weekend in Winter Park with me, said, you know, I think I'm going to quit skiing and we looked at her and complete surprise because we knew how much she loved it. You when you aren't you.

00:18:04:04 - 00:18:42:07
Richard Franklin
Well I'm really enjoying swimming in this sport is the difference between winning and losing. It's like one hundredths of a second. And if I stretch a knee or tear ligament on the hills, on the slopes, she said that 104 seconds gone. And it's I love skiing. I love swimming more. And so I think the right decision for me is to start to focus on swimming and give up skiing.

00:18:42:07 - 00:19:06:09
Richard Franklin
And we sat back and said that's exactly what we wanted to have happen. It came from her, not from us. Yeah, but you made up her own mind, you know, and she gave up soccer and she gave up basketball. Volleyball was the last one to go. And then it was swimming, nothing but swimming for for the rest of her career yet.

00:19:06:21 - 00:19:19:02
Matthew Krekeler
And that kind of leads into the other question I wanted to ask is what sacrifices as a family did you have to give up in order to pursue this Olympic run on.

00:19:20:01 - 00:19:57:02
Richard Franklin
Quite frankly? I mean, there's because you ask it in a one sided way, right? Then I'll go down that road in terms of what was what was demanded, you know, of of us. I think on the other side, before I get down that road, I can only say, you know, that it was so worth it, so worth it not only for us, but for our family, for our connected family, for for Missy, as a person who she is today and what she's doing today, we owe it all to swimming.

00:19:57:05 - 00:20:00:09
Matthew Krekeler
So thank you for sharing that.

00:20:00:09 - 00:20:32:16
Richard Franklin
Yeah, I mean, that it was all worth everything, you know, a million times over now down, down the the other side of the equation, there was a lot because, you know, swimming is it's year round. You know, you go from the summer swim league, then you go to year round and then you go from local then to regional to national to international.

00:20:33:00 - 00:21:18:04
Richard Franklin
And I mean I mean, I remember once NBC was interviewing us over in Heritage Green's in our home and Heritage Green's after the Olympics. And the interviewer said to me, Mr. Frankel, we heard we heard that you almost didn't go to Shanghai for the world championships, and is that true? And he said, Yeah, we almost didn't go. So why why would you not go and he said, Well, you know, we're at a meet like every other week for the entire year and for the last ten years, you know, and I said Shanghai, it was a world championships.

00:21:18:04 - 00:21:45:02
Richard Franklin
Number one. We didn't know how she was going to do. We didn't know if she was going to get a gold, get a silver, get a bronze and break through as a swimmer, as a global swimmer, because she'd just got three world championships right there. Right. And I said, but at the time it was this it was going to cost $5,000 for the two of us to fly over there.

00:21:45:05 - 00:22:08:14
Richard Franklin
It was going to cost us $6,000 to stay in the hotel room for seven days. It was going to cost us $2,000 each for the tickets to go to the meet every day for six days because she was she was competing in five events. And then there's then there was the food. And then, by the way, you know, I wasn't working that week.

00:22:08:14 - 00:22:42:19
Richard Franklin
So I had lost income. So I would estimated it probably cost me over $15,000. And she swam a total of 5 minutes. Yeah. And they all. 00i see what you mean. They said now add that times. Russia, Singapore, China. Australia, Australia. Canada, Vancouver, Dubai, England, France, Switzerland, you know. Need I go on.

00:22:43:11 - 00:22:43:18
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah.

00:22:45:00 - 00:23:26:14
Richard Franklin
So it's it's a full it's a full time effort. And and the the irony is the better she does no more efforts required now down down to the guttural level back in the you know, earlier days, you know, I could talk about getting up at 5:00 in the morning in the middle of dead cold Colorado, January winter going up and going out to warm up the Toyota while her mother while her mother is warming her, her swim blanket up in the in the dryer.

00:23:26:14 - 00:23:56:19
Richard Franklin
So it'll be warm for her in the car and then getting her into the car and driving across the city, because in Denver, there's not a lot of hundred meter pools. You're just not around the corner. You know, very few. We're not a swimming state. And so you have to drive halfway across the city and get there for 7:00 practice and the coach, you know, most coaches won't let parents watch the whole practice.

00:23:56:19 - 00:24:30:07
Richard Franklin
So let them watched the last 15 minutes for obvious reasons. They want to be able to run their own swim swim practices with a parent involvement or worse, interference. So having to get out in, you know, 20 degrees, 25 degrees Fahrenheit with the dog in the dark and walk around the pool about 20 times to take up that hour and a half, put the dog back in the car and go and get my last 15 minutes to watch her swim and bring her home at 9:00.

00:24:30:11 - 00:24:45:03
Richard Franklin
Now, the day was going to start and that's that's that's a winter morning for a young ten, ten year old Colorado swimmer and father and mother.

00:24:45:03 - 00:24:56:01
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, right now it's it's difficult. We've got three kids trying to get out the door before nine. Sometimes you're like, I said, yeah, it's changed and breakfast and stuff.

00:24:56:01 - 00:25:27:12
Richard Franklin
I've said that. I've said that so many times. I said, please, first of all, don't let me sound selfish about this because my my heart goes out to you guys. The parents that have two, three, four children. I mean, we had Missy, we had one and we focused on her. And I could not imagine if we were splitting up our days between dancing and basketball and swimming and skiing.

00:25:28:00 - 00:25:37:21
Richard Franklin
10:00, 2:00 at 4:00, 3:00. I mean, credit goes to you, no question about it. I can't believe what a mammoth job that would be.

00:25:39:04 - 00:25:54:20
Matthew Krekeler
Thank you. Yeah, we're blessed in a lot of ways, just with our daughters and watching them grow up as sisters. But it can be limiting sometimes we're like, okay, we can't commit to something because the other two need. Need something, of course.

00:25:55:07 - 00:25:55:21
Richard Franklin
Exactly.

00:25:56:16 - 00:26:14:14
Matthew Krekeler
But being able to travel and you've traveled the world with swimming, which is an amazing thing. Yeah. What kind of just unique stories from that experience do you have, like in the way that you were able to bond with your daughter?

00:26:14:14 - 00:26:36:16
Richard Franklin
Actually, it was better when it was local. I mean, we if we had a meet in Fort Collins, you know, at the state finals in Fort Collins, right. They go on at the aquatic center there. I mean, she'd get so excited we wouldn't drive to Fort Collins and back to Littleton. Each day they go on for four days, right?

00:26:36:21 - 00:27:00:13
Richard Franklin
We go out Thursday and we'd stay at the Marriott and we would make a make a fun deal out of it. You know, we'd take her favorite food for the room and check into the room, and we'd take the dog and and pile into the car, and we'd be there for four days and go in and just have a blast.

00:27:00:13 - 00:27:26:18
Richard Franklin
And she'd, you know, she'd be with her friends and her coach. She'd go to the pool every day to compete. And we always made it such a fun event for and we were with her most of the time. And that's in those days when it's Rocky Mountain League in high school, Regis League, you know, because it's close and you're there and you can drive home or make a weekend of it.

00:27:27:10 - 00:27:57:02
Richard Franklin
That all kind of ended when the whole international stuff started coming in. I mean, I remember one lady at the world championships in Barcelona. Missy was the first woman in history to win six world championships at that one meet. And I remember one of our neighbors after we got the ax and congratulations. Oh, my God. Six World Championships.

00:27:57:13 - 00:28:26:05
Richard Franklin
Well, how did you like Barcelona? And we we both just laughed and said, what do you mean? Well, I hear it's a beautiful city. You know, the architecture. That's who it is. But let me explain something. Number one, we get there and all the parents are in the same hotel so that they can get a bus in the morning to get all the American parents from the U.S. team onto the bus.

00:28:26:20 - 00:28:53:09
Richard Franklin
They take us to the pool in the morning and we're there for prelims. And we we stick around. We have an hour break for lunch. Then their semifinal was in the afternoon and then the finals start 6:00 at night, 7:00 when the finals finish about 9:00. Then all the parents get back in the bus and go back to the hotel about 10:00, and next day you do it over again.

00:28:54:07 - 00:29:20:01
Richard Franklin
Now, some parents there, swimmer might only be in one or two events. So they're there for the whole six days. You know, they can get to a couple of days off to go Turin. But missing was always reduced in five or six events. So every day same thing. Prelims, semifinals, finals. Prelims, semifinals, finals. Two, you know, 100 that 253, 200, 400 free 200.

00:29:20:06 - 00:29:47:01
Richard Franklin
I mean, so I said we never saw Barcelona. We went from the hotel to the bus to the pool, the pool back to the bus to the hotel. And it was kind of, you know, you see the look of surprise in their faces because they know all you get to do all this travel and you get to enjoy all these places and not when your daughter's swimming inside the events, you don't, you know, so it was fun.

00:29:47:01 - 00:30:07:01
Richard Franklin
I mean, we we wouldn't dare not be there for one to missy swims, right? We come across the country across the world to be there. Does she you know, she always looked up from those starting blocks. She always looked up for us before she started to race. And we were always there. We never missed a swim meet in 15 years.

00:30:08:03 - 00:30:25:14
Matthew Krekeler
Well, yeah, I just think, like the parents presence, like in their child's like whatever it is, like a play, a recital, a sport. It's just so huge. Like, like they look up to you, and it just means the world to them through those.

00:30:25:14 - 00:30:50:12
Richard Franklin
Yeah. Unmistakably, unmistakably. It means everything to them that you're there and for the good times as well as the bad times. Because things always don't go, especially in sports. We all know losing is a part of sports. Yeah, that that's what I think. That's what makes ex athletes, you know, the kind of people they are because they've met adversity.

00:30:50:22 - 00:31:09:13
Richard Franklin
They haven't been victorious all the time. They know that. They know what defeat feels like and tastes like and they've had this. They've had to suck it up and deal with it and become stronger for it. And I think that's that's one of the that's one of the things about sports I've always admired.

00:31:09:13 - 00:31:25:13
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, it's a great life lesson, too. Like there's so many different things that carry over just in the daily struggles and the daily challenges and the way that you have to practice, the way that you constantly have to reevaluate and improve. And you know, yeah, just keep not letting it get you down.

00:31:26:00 - 00:32:00:19
Richard Franklin
Exactly. And the team element is sports, right? I mean, gosh, seeing how fractured fractional, you know, society is today. And the whole concept of Team Missy was interviewed a couple of weeks ago at the Internet Swimmers Hall of Fame induction done in Fort Lauderdale. In part part of her acceptance speech was everybody thinks swimming is an individual sport, that it's you in that black line.

00:32:01:18 - 00:32:24:15
Richard Franklin
And over and over again, 12,000, 13,000 meters a day, which is it's it's not it's a boat team. I mean, we are all being part of that. She she loved the relays the most because it was for women against for women of Australia against for women of Canada, for Germans, for Frenchmen, French girls. I mean, she loved the whole team.

00:32:24:15 - 00:32:42:09
Richard Franklin
Part of it that was one of her greatest joys is winning for the team. So that's that's another nice part about sports is that you're you're not you're not an individual per say. You're working with other people in a team effort all striving for the same goals.

00:32:43:14 - 00:32:59:04
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. And then what was that like? Just as a father watching your daughter get world records, gold medals and, you know, representing the United States at the Olympics, it's surreal.

00:32:59:04 - 00:33:35:16
Richard Franklin
I mean, that's really the best word. Surreal. You just you don't expect what's going to I mean, I'll tell you a story. Omaha, Nebraska. So this was July 2012, because the U.S. Olympic trials for swimming are only a month before the actual Olympics occur. And because they want to have the best swimmers at the best times swimming their best at the trials so they can pick them all up, pick them, and then pick them all up and then fly them to London and let him win.

00:33:35:17 - 00:34:03:09
Richard Franklin
Right. And we were in Omaha. She had just won the the 100 back. Yes, that's right. It was the 100 back and she won, which then immediately made her an Olympian. I mean I mean, she's now an Olympian. Whether she wins or lose at the Olympics doesn't matter. We told her that you're always going to be an Olympian.

00:34:03:09 - 00:34:30:16
Richard Franklin
Now, there's no such thing as an excellent being. And we didn't know then that she also went in for other events and be an Olympian and five times over. Right. So that was that was the icing on the cake. But what I was going to say is we went back to the hotel to wait for them from the pool because they're all sanctioned off and the team sanctioned off and nobody can get to them.

00:34:30:16 - 00:35:15:04
Richard Franklin
Parents can't get to them. Chris can't get to them in which he was being brought back to the hotel from the pool in Omaha, there were four soldiers escorting her back to the pool, rescue me back to the hotel. And I looked at my wife and said, Our life is never going to be the same. And after after that, I mean, I can tell you stories in other countries where security would have to take Missy and Michael Phelps out the back door and into an alley, into a secured car to get her back to the hotel because of the crazy fans and everything in a row inside, they would never get they would never get

00:35:15:04 - 00:35:43:04
Richard Franklin
back on their own, you know. So security in her life and security for Missy, you know, became even when Regis high school graduation downtown. We were very concerned about her being recognized everywhere and being downtown at night. Regis Regis Sexton and Mayor Hickenlooper at the time went to two of his security guys to watch Missy the whole evening.

00:35:43:04 - 00:35:44:03
Richard Franklin
So things change.

00:35:44:15 - 00:36:12:03
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. So yeah, that kind of leads me to wanting to ask about jumping forward to now present day. A lot of time has passed since the Olympic events. I think I read she kind of officially retired from swimming in 2018. Now she is a mother, which is amazing. And yeah, it's cool. Like I follow her on social media and get to see like updates from them and stuff.

00:36:12:18 - 00:36:31:16
Matthew Krekeler
And that's what I love about kind of the social media channels is seeing just different ways that people embrace, like family life and kind of the everyday sort of things. Yeah. And you're also a grandfather, so congratulations on that. You have an amazing granddaughter and.

00:36:32:16 - 00:36:36:08
Richard Franklin
Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's two years, two years old now.

00:36:37:04 - 00:36:42:04
Matthew Krekeler
Oh two. Wow. So, yeah. What's life like now for you?

00:36:43:12 - 00:37:20:22
Richard Franklin
Well, it's it's certainly different because I'm retired now. So, you know, I've had, you know, just a fabulous life. I mean, it's, you know, between corporate world and corporate travel and and and then having a daughter and a daughter becoming a world champion, world record holder, two time Olympian, and then her getting married and me having health problems and then moving to Colorado after living there for 35 years and moving to Nashville.

00:37:21:11 - 00:37:44:19
Richard Franklin
So it's a it's a much more subdued lifestyle for me now, which it should be for for a lot of reasons. Right. But we get we've got time. They literally live 11 minutes from our house here in Nashville. So so we're we're at that can call, you know, hey, dad, mom, I got a zoom call or dad, mom, we got to go to New York tomorrow.

00:37:46:02 - 00:38:21:17
Richard Franklin
Can you can you come on over in the evening, put the baby to bed? You know, we're here. We're here. It's that kind of thing. And to your earlier point or question, you know, she's very, very busy. She's kind of transition transitioned from athlete to Olympian to influencer to, you know, moving moving into almost celebrity status now. And I mean, last week she was up in New York for sports legend dinner.

00:38:22:07 - 00:38:54:14
Richard Franklin
You know, she just got inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. She's major corporations. Ask her why or in other jets to speak to their board of directors or their or their personnel. She does a lot of speaking to groups around the country for mental illness and mental health, especially for young girls to make issue with teenage girls in America today.

00:38:55:04 - 00:39:16:20
Richard Franklin
So dealing with, hey, what's what's it like to be an Olympian? What's it like to go up to the top and then to start coming back down? I mean, she was only 17 when she was in London. This is a very, very young and very vulnerable age to be going through all that pressure. Right. So she does all of these things working for various companies.

00:39:17:04 - 00:39:48:19
Richard Franklin
She's also working with the Nelson Mandela group that she's been involved for for many, many, many years. So between that and, you know, being a full time mom and and having professional responsibility is I'm proud of her because she's Cuban. She's keeping it all together and doing it well. And and quite honestly, she's she both she and Kate or Fleur flourishing.

00:39:48:20 - 00:40:15:06
Richard Franklin
I mean, Kate's just a she's just a mini me of missy, right? I mean, she's already she's two years old. She's wearing a size four tall. And, you know, she she's in the 100 percentile on weight and height already. I mean, she's going to be I guarantee you, she's going to be another six foot something female athlete. I won't say swimming.

00:40:16:05 - 00:40:42:12
Richard Franklin
Missy won't let me do that. But she is she's going to be whatever she wants to be. Kate is you know, she's she's got a mother, Missy, that's just is totally into her. And prior rises her in every shape or form. So so it's it's all good. I think when I look back, I feel pretty good about the way it's all come coming to fruition.

00:40:43:22 - 00:41:01:04
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, that's amazing to hear all of that. And I know that you're proud of her for her athletic accomplishments, but I'm sure too, like now that she is speaking and being an advocate and a role model for all these other girls out there, like you're proud of her for all of those things, too.

00:41:02:00 - 00:41:32:05
Richard Franklin
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, even even back in Denver, you know, the the influence she has in Denver, wherever she goes, places in when I when I see the impact she has on young girls, I mean, just in Fort Lauderdale two weeks ago at the International Induction Hall of Fame, swimming, all the thing I mean, it was like 2012 all over again.

00:41:32:05 - 00:41:56:06
Richard Franklin
All the young people that were there and all the young women, we barely got in the front door and Missy was just barraged with, you know, signing autographs and pictures and, you know, and we had to get security to get her to backstage so she could be ready for her induction. I mean, you know, and London was well over a decade ago.

00:41:56:19 - 00:42:01:19
Richard Franklin
So here's all these young girls all know her story. And yet they weren't even born when she was in London.

00:42:02:23 - 00:42:29:15
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. Yeah. That's such an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. And we're almost out of time. But I like at the end of these interviews to give each of the dads that I interview just an opportunity to leave a special message just directly for their daughter. And in this case, yeah, feel free to leave a special message for both Missy and Kate.

00:42:29:15 - 00:43:10:17
Richard Franklin
Sure, sure. I think that the the the best heartfelt thing I can say about Missy and Kate is is first of all, I only had one child, you know, almost purposely, and I didn't know what I was getting into. But that she is she has broken every wish I could ever have. I really believed that she is a very loving, giving and contributing member of society, is doing a lot of good in the world and as far as Kate's concerned, well, she's now my favorite little girl.

00:43:11:20 - 00:43:35:13
Richard Franklin
Much to Mrs. Bryn, right? I mean, she's a darling little girl. She's growing. She's flourishing. Missy, on top of all her other accomplishments, is just a phenomenal young mother at 28 years old and doing a heck of a job raising Kate. So I know we're going to have two young women in the world that are going to be doing a lot of good down the line.

00:43:35:13 - 00:43:58:22
Matthew Krekeler
Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that. It's been amazing having you on the podcast. And I just want to tell all my listeners out there, yeah, go check out the links to the description to learn more about Missy Franklin and some of the videos that I thought were inspiring. And then also feel free to share this with a friend, especially a young girl dad.

00:43:59:11 - 00:44:34:16
Matthew Krekeler
Hopefully it's encouraging for them as it has been for me to listen to these stories and interviewing amazing fathers like Richard Franklin. And you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and also on my new website. Girl Dad Nation dot org. Thank you so much and until next time, go be a dad. I love hearing from listeners like you and I want to give a big shout out to Brandon and his daughter Lizzie.

00:44:34:21 - 00:44:53:11
Matthew Krekeler
I think Lizzie is probably about six months right now, so I hope everything's going well for you and your family. I wish you all the best. It's going to be an amazing journey and I'm so excited to be on this journey with you. And I'd like to tell you about a new feature. You can now text the show by hitting send me a text message in the show description.

00:44:53:15 - 00:44:54:18
Matthew Krekeler
Would love to hear from you.