So when Missy Franklin didn’t set the world on fire last night I think I was like a lot of people surprised.  Because you know, it’s easy to forget that life continues to happen for athletes in the four years between Olympics and I remember her being the darling of Team USA in 2012 and I guess just assumed she must still be awesome.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered she was lucky to even make the games.  I did a bunch of reading on it because I was curious and it seems there are a lot of questions as to why she is actually swimming slower than she did in London at 17.  Boy, everything is to blame from just that’s how life works to body changes to injuries to the fact that she didn’t go pro.  I’ll be honest, my favorite villain in this is the NCAA because it’s an organization that exists to exploit the free labor of children and people who were just recently children, so it’s not hard for me to find a reason to dislike them.  I am not here to blame any of that though, I am here to say I was wrong. I was like, “Why isn’t she still amazing,” but it turns out she’s still amazing and that’s important to note.  We should all be so gracious and kind in defeat as Missy Franklin is.  She still has that amazing smile and warmth and talks about team and country.  Among the many reasons people site for her fall off is she spent too much time making appearances for things like Arthur Ashe kids at children’s hospitals because apparently she can’t say no the helping charities. We should all be so amazing.  I saw a quote about how when she decided not to go pro so she could attend college (and again, you should hear what a bag full of dicks the NCAA was the entire time) she has given up an estimated $5 million in earnings and does she regret it and of course she doesn’t because you can’t put a price on the friendships she made and experiences she had. So given the headlines I have seen that range from calling her a dud (yes really) and asking if the pressure got to her (probably not, you know, she does have 4 gold medals in a drawer somewhere) I realized Missy Franklin doesn’t really have a problem.  We have a problem.  We could all learn from her and that delightful smile and I guess I am posting this to say I still love her and we should all be thankful for her and people like her.  Today I want to fuck Missy Franklin.