American swimmer Missy Franklin spent a huge chunk of her life on the world stage of swimming, despite retiring at only 23-years old. For a 3-year period, she was as good on that world stage as any female swimmer in history, breaking record-after-record and earning superlative-after-superlative.

And while her time at that peak was relatively-short, she still amassed credentials that will put her down as one of the greatest female swimmers in history. It’s almost a throwback career of sorts – like some of the great female swimmers of prior generations, Franklin was among the best in the world as a teenager, had one huge Olympic performance, and by her mid-20s her racing career was over.

Franklin made her first big international team, the 2010 Pan Pacs team, at age 15, but came away medal-less. At that year’s Short Course World Championships, she took silver in the 200 backstroke, which was a scary proposition given how much better she was in long course than short course.

A year later, she scored her first international gold medals at the World Championship, including winning her first individual gold in the 200 back at the World Championships.

After a 3-gold and 5-total medal performance at that meet, Franklin, still an amateur, went on to win 4 gold and 1 bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games, including a World Record performance of 2:04.06 in the 200 back.

A year later was her true peak in terms of being a globally-dominant force in swimming. At the 2013 World Championships, she won the 100 back, 200 back, and 200 free individually and was also on the winning 400 free, 800 free, and 400 medley relays. That 6 gold medal performance set the record for the most gold medals won by a female swimmer at a single edition of the World Championships. In spite of that accomplishment, Katie Ledecky, who was rising up to take the throne as America’s top female swimmer, was named Swimmer of the Meet after breaking 2 World Records.

As injuries beset Franklin’s career, she would win 2 minor individual medals and 2 relay golds at the 2015 World Championships, plus another Olympic gold medal as a prelims-only swimmer at the 2016 Olympic Games, but she never recaptured the form that she had during that 3-year period from 2011-2013.

Missy-mania was very real. She was everything in women’s swimming for a blip in time. Just because the career ended early doesn’t mean we shouldn’t remember just how incredible it was while it lasted.

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