The official record book still attests that Michelle Smith won the 200m individual medley at the Atlanta Olympics on the night of July 24th, 1996. She snatched her third gold of those games by edging out Canada’s Marianne Limpert over the last 50m and, given Smith’s subsequent four-year ban, the ensuing controversy over those placings, inevitably, understandably, lingers still.
Representing her mother’s native Brazil, Gabrielle Rose wasn’t involved in the final, her business at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center concluded hours earlier when the 18-year-old finished sixth, three seconds behind Limpert, in heat four of the competition.
A respectable showing for an also-swam. That time earned the teen 22nd place overall and augured well for her future. Fresh out of St Mary’s Episcopal High School in Memphis, Tennessee, Rose embarked on a swimming scholarship to Stanford University, combining a BA in American Studies with working towards improving her showing at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. By the time they came around she had switched allegiance to the USA. Qualifying for the final of the 200m individual medley on that occasion, a disappointing seventh marked the end of her medal aspirations forever. She was 22.
At the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis last Friday night, Rose finished seventh in the 100m breaststroke final at the US National Championships. Five months shy of her 48th birthday. A genuine triumph of sorts. According to LinkedIn, Limpert is programme promotions co-ordinator at New Brunswick Power Corporation these days, and Smith is, of course, a barrister in Dublin. Exactly where superannuated swimmers are expected to be. Yet, the high-schooler they once left in their wake has improbably found her way back to the highest level of the sport. At an age when she is often older than the parents of the women she’s competing against.
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“Age is a big way that we limit ourselves,” said Rose. “There’s something to be said about continuing to set big goals, exploring and pushing yourself. We’re capable of more than we think sometimes.”
That attitude has informed one of the most curious and compelling comebacks in recent sports history. Rose walked away from swimming before the 2004 Olympics, her hopes of one more qualification having been dashed by an untimely battle with mononucleosis. She got on with the rest of her life, marrying, becoming a mother, divorcing, and working as an advocate for drowning prevention.
When her wealthy philanthropist father died of cancer in 2017, she dedicated herself to a campaign to restore and renovate the swimming pool at the University of Memphis into a top-class facility available to everybody in the town. A noble cause.
“It has inspired me on all levels,” she said of the impact on working on what is now known as the Mike Rose Aquatics Centre. “It motivated me to get into coaching, to pursue my own swimming, to really do even more. Swimming is not just a sport, it is a life-saving skill, and I was motivated to provide that opportunity to more people in our city.”
Aside from coaching kids in El Segundo, California, Rose kept fit by competing at the masters’ level. In one of those outings two years ago she set a personal best for the 100m breaststroke that brought her within touching distance of the Olympic qualifiers’ time. Where did that performance come from? Well, as a child of 12, she’d been a phenomenon in that event but lost her mojo as she grew into her teens and morphed into a medley competitor instead. For no explicable reason, she accidentally rediscovered the perfect stroke in her 40s.
Between that, honing her diving technique, being allowed to use the dolphin kick at the blocks, and surrounding herself with an extensive support team including a nutritionist and sports psychologist, she soon found herself posting times comparable to swimmers who weren’t even born when she was competing against Smith, Limpert et al in Atlanta. Realistic enough to know she was never going to be quite fast enough to punch her ticket to Paris, she still reached the semi-finals of the Olympic qualifiers last year. She swam in memory of her father and to inspire her watching daughter. The crowd loved her re-emergence; the media, too, adored the feelgood narrative.
Dipping her toe back in competitive waters required making herself available for regular drug testing. At which point she discovered swimmers now communicate their whereabouts to testers via an app rather than sending a fax like she used to do in ye olden days. Another illustration of how long she’d been away.
That she didn’t win last weekend scarcely matters either. Of course. It’s more important that she was there. In the final of the national championships, something she first aspired to in her early teens. On the starting blocks with some women young enough to be her kids. A middle-aged woman doing her bit to turn back the clock. Brazenly trying to defy Father Time. On behalf of beleaguered, jaded and weary middle-aged triers everywhere.
“The water has often been an escape and a sanctuary through some rough chapters of my life,” wrote Rose on her Instagram. “Now I can see it’s more than the water itself. It’s the process. Something about continuing to go for more and ask what else might be possible washes away a lot that doesn’t feel like me − and I get to see more of who I really am.”
She is something.
