From water baby to phenom

D.A. Franklin grew up afraid of the water, so she wanted to make sure her only child overcame that anxiety early. Without any more thought than that, she signed up for "Mommy and Me" swim lessons when Melissa Franklin was 6 months old.

That's when things first got strange.

In a pool filled with crying babies, screaming babies, or others clutching their mothers' necks, D.A. Franklin's baby wanted to swim. And Melissa Franklin disappeared into the water with eyes wide open and a grin on her face.

"You'd see her underwater, smiling with her big green eyes open," D.A. Franklin said. "It was just incredible."

And it was also just the beginning. At 2 1/2 , she was snorkeling in the ocean. By 5, she excelled with the neighborhood swim team, and at 8, she insisted on swimming in Grand Lake near her family's home in Aurora, Colo., even when it was rimmed with snow and ice.

At 11, she could dominate high school kids; at 12, she made her first Olympic Trials cuts; and now, at 14, she will swim alongside Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and other stars as the youngest athlete named to USA Swimming's "Duel in the Pool" team that will compete in Manchester, England, in mid-December.

"All I remember is I just loved swimming more than anything," Franklin said. "I loved being in the water more than on land because I was so comfortable in it."

Franklin, whose birthday is in May, holds 10 national age-group records, and the times she posted in the 100-meter freestyle and 200 backstroke at this summer's U.S. junior championships in Federal Way, Wash., each stand as the third-fastest by any American woman this year.

"If she was 18 and doing this stuff, it would be a lot more normal," her father, Dick, said.

The Franklins, at least, have gotten used to a sort of paranormal when their daughter is near a body of water. Though she excelled at other sports -- soccer, basketball and volleyball among them -- she decided years ago she preferred spending the bulk of her free time underwater.

Todd Schmitz, who has coached her since she was 8, said Franklin stood out from the first time he saw her. He said she brought a great natural feel for the water to the pool, always craved racing and, he added, "her size doesn't hurt, either."