Schmitty

If you watched the women's 4x200m freestyle relay last night and NBC at all today, you've seen a lot of USA swimmer Allison Schmitt. She's a very positive and happy personality and it's great to see her back. And I mean that for many reasons.

She's been making the interview rounds after being a part of the gold medal winning relay team. She's available to do the media circus because she's done with the two events she was scheduled to compete in. Both of those events were relays were she qualified because of a third through sixth finish at the trials. This is a big difference from four years ago.

In London, Schmitt was the breakout star along with Missy Franklin. Like Franklin, Schmitt has gone through a lot of highs and lows since 2012. Unlike Franklin, her lows have not been physical due to injuries. She won five medals, including three golds, in London. Of those three gold medals one of them was the 200m free Olympic champion.

A year later, Schmitt failed to make the world championship team. I remember watching the meet and wondering where she was. In 2014, she didn't even make the national team. How could an Olympic gold medalist fail to make the national team?

On the inside, Schmitt was experiencing the dramatic drop off that many Olympic athletes go through after the games. Four years seems so far away and they want the high of the experience and competition again immediately. Schmitt sank into a deep depression, saying and doing all the right things on the outside but in a deep place on the inside.

It wasn't until close friend and training partner Michael Phelps said something in 2015 that she admitted she was struggling. Sadly, it took the suicide of a beloved younger cousin to for her to want to find her way out. Since then, she's truly sought help to get better and decided to use her platform to talk about young people, athletes and depression.

While she may not have qualified at trials to defend her individual title or compete in any individual event, she was voted co-captain by her fellow teammates. A big testament to the respect and faith everyone has in her. The lone gold she leaves the Olympics with this time around means more than just the swim race she helped win. She's back to being "Schmitty."

There's a great feature piece about her by ESPN that I recommend if you have time to read it here.