Thursday, March 19, 2020 — 5A
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily

Design by Jack Silberman

In observance of Women’s History 

Month, The Daily’s sports section is 
launching its third annual series aimed 
at telling the stories of female athletes, 
coaches and teams at the University 
from the perspective of the female sports 
writers on staff. Daily sports editor Aria 
Gerson kicks off the series with this 
story.

On one side of the pool at the London Aquatic 

Club, the older swimmers train for competitions. On 

the other, younger swimmers perfect their strokes 

with styrofoam flutterboards. Each flutterboard is 

emblazoned with an autograph.

In the fall, the last time Maggie MacNeil returned 

to her hometown of London, Ont., her coach, Andrew 

Craven, asked her to take pictures with the young 

athletes and sign their flutterboards.

It’s a similar scene every time she comes home. The 

kids rush to her, asking for autographs and photos. The 

local radio stations and newspapers ask for interviews. 

Everyone knows who she is — Maggie MacNeil, world 

champion.

In Ann Arbor, MacNeil’s presence is much harder 

to spot. The entrance to the pool deck at the Canham 

Natatorium is lined with swim caps of Olympians 

who swam for Michigan. There are lists of NCAA 

champions. Soon, MacNeil could be among them. But 

she isn’t yet.

MacNeil is, of course, still well known within the 

confines of the natatorium. She’s the best swimmer on 

an already-stacked Michigan team. She’s a 10-time Big 

Ten champion in just her sophomore year. Every other 

swimmer knows that in a butterfly or sprint freestyle 

event, she’s the one to beat.

But MacNeil isn’t the only swimmer on her team 

who’s contended for conference championships, 

NCAA championships or even the Olympics. She 

was only one of nine who competed at the World 

Championships last summer. The Wolverines don’t 

have to pin their hopes on her.

Outside the pool, MacNeil keeps a fairly low profile, 

not boasting her status as one of the world’s top 

swimmers. Other than her block ‘M’ backpack all the 

athletes wear, she could be any other student.

On campus, no one really knows who MacNeil is. 

She likes it that way.

***

When MacNeil was growing up, one of her mom’s 

rules was that she could never get a tattoo. But her mom, 

Susan McNair, didn’t want to seem like a complete 

stick-in-the-mud, so she added one condition. MacNeil 

could get a tattoo of the Olympic rings — if and only if 

she ever got to the Olympics. “Knowing full well that 

I would never have a child who got to the Olympics,” 

McNair said.

Back then, McNair’s thought process was sound. 

MacNeil wasn’t one of those kids you always knew 

might be destined for the Olympics. She was good, yes. 

Good enough to go to nationals-level meets at the age of 

12, good enough to be selected for international events 

like the 2018 Junior Pan-Pacific Championships, good 

enough to be recruited by top NCAA programs. But 

MacNeil hadn’t hit the level of some other swimmers 

her age, and because of that, most of the pressure on 

her was pressure she put on herself.

In 2017, she didn’t make the Canadian team for 

the World Junior Championships. She won medals at 

national and regional meets but hadn’t quite reached 

the pinnacle of her sport. 

Even teams that recruited her, like Michigan and 

California, had reservations. She was strong in the 100-

yard butterfly, but teams were concerned she might 

just be a one-trick pony. Michigan assistant coach Rick 

Bishop, who primarily works with the women’s team, 

wasn’t sure whether the Wolverines were the right fit. 

MacNeil, after all, came from a club where she was 

always the best — better, even, than the boys. With the 

Wolverines, she’d be in a much bigger pond.

Head coach Mike Bottom, though, was sold from 

the beginning. He saw someone with a strong work 

ethic and good results for the club she came from. 

But Michigan didn’t see MacNeil as a future world 

champion — just a solid addition to a top team.

“Neither one of us really went into it with these 

outrageous expectations,” Bishop said. “I think she 

truly made a good decision in (that) she liked the 

University of Michigan. We didn’t have this massive 

expectation that we were recruiting this superstar 

talent, and she didn’t have this massive expectation 

that we were gonna get her to some crazy place.”

Bishop’s philosophy is to take a swimmer and, 

instead of improving her weaknesses, coach to her 

strengths. MacNeil was a strong underwater swimmer 

with good closing speed, so she and Bishop worked to 

make sure she was the best underwater swimmer with 

the best closing speed. 

That was when she began to burst onto the scene.

MacNeil was used to swimming as an individual. 

But the team environment of Big Ten dual meets — the 

parents in the stands, the constant cheering, the feeling 

of cheering for weaker teams to win so Michigan’s 

biggest competitors got fewer points — invigorated 

her. Suddenly, she was swimming not only for herself, 

but for 32 others. It took some of the pressure off, 

because her team was there for her. 

In 2019, her freshman season, she won two 

individual conference championships and two more as 

a member of a relay team. At NCAA Championships, 

she notched a second-place finish in her signature 

event, the 100-yard butterfly, and finished fourth in 

the 50-yard freestyle. Then, in April, she made the 

Canadian team for the World Championships. Even 

still, Craven’s realistic expectation for MacNeil was 

maybe making the semi-finals of the 100 fly.

Instead, all it took was 55.83 seconds for MacNeil to 

go from unknown to the top of the swimming world.

Before MacNeil’s race at Worlds, she strategized 

with Bishop for how she could beat her biggest 

competition: Sarah Sjöstrom, a Swedish swimmer 

who has been nearly unbeatable in the event since 

breaking the world record at the 2016 Olympics. Her 

parents watched from the audience, Craven from his 

computer at home and her teammates from a TV feed 

at the natatorium as MacNeil went into the turn in 

the middle of the pack. Then, she turned on the jets — 

utilizing her underwaters and back-half speed to great 

effect, just the way she and Bishop planned — to beat 

Sjöstrom and win the championship.

The Canadian flag went up and “O Canada” played. 

It was MacNeil’s coronation moment — and one that 

removed her cloak of anonymity.

MacNeil went into the 2020 season knowing full 

well that it was an Olympic year, and that she was 

potentially on track to make the Canadian team. She 

briefly considered taking a redshirt year to train, but 

ultimately decided against it. 

Taking the year off would have meant returning 

home to Canada. That, in turn, would mean much 

more intense training sessions, without the fun of Big 

Ten meets to break them up. It would mean constant 

media requests, autograph signings, photos. It would 

mean the eyes of a country, pinned on her, and all the 

pressure that came with that.

For MacNeil, the decision to return to Michigan 

was easy because it allowed her to keep a lower profile. 

With the Wolverines, she can take her training one big 

event at a time and focus on swimming in one of the 

best conferences in the country before worrying about 

the all-consuming potential of Trials or the Olympics. 

In late February — before the world was flipped 

on its head due to the COVID-19 outbreak — MacNeil 

returned from Big Tens with two big meets coming 

up. First, NCAA Championships were set to begin 

March 18. (They have since been canceled.) Canadian 

Olympic Trials were scheduled to start March 30, just 

nine days after NCAAs were supposed to end. (They 

have since been postponed indefinitely, and it has yet 

to be determined if they will be moved to a later date.) 

One look into Bishop’s office, and it was clear which of 

the two MacNeil was more focused on.

Listed on a whiteboard were four times, a list of 

teams and a drawing of a medal. They were Michigan’s 

target splits for the 200-yard medley relay, in which 

MacNeil swam the first leg. MacNeil sorely wants to 

win an NCAA Championship, and she wants to win 

one with her team. As she trained, NCAAs were her 

main focus. Thoughts of Trials and potentially the 

Olympics would come later. That’s why, when Bishop 

reminds MacNeil how many days there are until 

Tokyo or tries to gameplan for how to beat Sjöstrom a 

second time, MacNeil will always remind him: “I still 

gotta make the Canadian team!”

The regimented, race-by-race nature of MacNeil’s 

training has helped take the pressure off. So has the 

fact that she’s in a different country, competing for a 

team of her own. Most professional swimmers only 

have one thing to focus on: international competition. 

MacNeil has that, but she also has college races every 

week. She has Big Tens and NCAAs. She has a team 

around her, one she desperately wants to help win a 

team championship.

The few times she does go back home, she’s 

showered with recognition. Not to the point of being 

overwhelmed — just enough to give her confidence 

that she can accomplish whatever she wants.

“I kinda like to say I’m hiding out down here,” 

MacNeil said. “Which is kinda nice.”

***

At meets, MacNeil blends in with the rest of her 

teammates. All of them wear the same blue one-

piece swimsuit with the block ‘M’ on the chest. She 

stays loose by doing TikTok dances on the pool deck 

and having friendly competitions with the other 

swimmers. As a sprinter, when she dives into the 

water, all eyes are on her for less than a minute. Then, 

it’s a teammate’s turn.

In Canada, every meet is all about her — Maggie 

MacNeil, world champion, Olympic hopeful. At 

Michigan, it doesn’t matter who’s swimming as long 

as the winner wears maize and blue. In Canada, she’s 

expected to meet with young swimmers who idolize 

her and provide publicity for Swimming Canada. At 

Michigan, it would be a surprise if someone asked for 

an autograph because so few classmates know who she 

is.

“I’m not feeling as stressed as I should be about 

Trials and the Olympics,” MacNeil said. “ ... I’m really 

able to focus on swimming when I’m at the pool and 

be able to focus on my studies and really have the 

two connected just because I wouldn’t be recognized 

unless I’m at an event.”

The rigors of an NCAA program aren’t right 

for every international swimmer. But for MacNeil, 

more on her plate means a clearer head and a better 

performance. The anonymity the Wolverines have 

granted her has enabled her to develop into a swimmer 

that may just have to call her mom’s bluff.

Although McNair was wrong about the level her 

daughter would rise to, she knows there are much 

worse things that could happen than MacNeil getting 

an Olympic rings tattoo. Beside, she’s seen first-hand 

the way Michigan has supported MacNeil, and she’ll 

take that every single time.

“You know what?” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever 

seen Maggie happier than I have the past couple of 

years.”

For Maggie MacNeil,

anonymity is a secret weapon

Sports

WOMEN’S MONTH 2020

HIDING 

OUT

ARIA GERSON

DAILY SPORTS EDITOR

