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