fresno cormorant: Missy Franklin Gives Justin Bieber Olympic Fever

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Missy Franklin Gives Justin Bieber Olympic Fever

'Congrats on winning gold,' Bieber tweeted to the teenage swimming star.
By Gil Kaufman

It's practically the second question any NBC sport reporter asks a young, female Olympic athlete right after, "how does it feel to win your first medal?" or "how does it feel to have just missed out on a medal?""Is it true you're a big <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/bieber_justin/artist.jhtml">Justin Bieber</a> fan?"The answer is pretty much always yes. But in the case of sudden teen swimming phenom Missy Franklin, the admiration goes both ways. The 17-year-old Aurora, Colorado native qualified for the women's 200m freestyle race on Monday night and then turned around less than 15 minutes later and won the women's 100m backstroke while setting an American record.<big><a href="www.mtv.com/news/2012/summer_jam_games/">Vote for your favorites now in MTV's Summer Jam Games!</a></big>Among the millions of minds blown was that of Bieber, who <a href="https://twitter.com/justinbieber/status/230212769889280000" target="_blank">tweeted</a>, "heard @FranklinMissy is a fan of mine. Now I'm a fan of hers too. CONGATS on winning GOLD! #muchlove."Franklin, who also got some words of encouragement on Tuesday (July 31) from season 10 "American Idol" champ <a href="https://twitter.com/FranklinMissy/status/230276258783698944" target="_blank">Scotty McCreery</a>, couldn't believe that Bieber shouted her out, <a href="https://twitter.com/FranklinMissy/status/230214892349693952" target="_blank">writing</a>, "I just died! Thankyou!"The perpetually smiling teen known as "Missy the Missile," turned down some pretty fat endorsement deals and bonuses so that she could retain her amateur status and swim in college. She will swim in seven events during her Olympics run, which kicked off with a starring role in the <a href="http://newsroom.mtv.com/2012/07/27/us-olympic-swim-team-call-me-maybe-video-carly-rae-jepsen/">viral lip dub hit</a> cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's <a href="/news/articles/1687413/carly-rae-jepsen-call-me-maybe.jhtml">"Call Me Maybe"</a>  by members of the U.S. swimming delegation. The video has been seen more than 4 million times since it was posted on Thursday.Just weeks after the horrific <a href="/news/articles/1690774/shooter-james-holmes-charged-24-counts-murder.jhtml">movie theater shootings</a>  in Aurora that killed 12 and injured 58 while she was training in France, Franklin told <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-33747_162-57483060/swimmer-missy-franklin-dedicates-olympic-wins-to-colorado/" target="_blank">CBS News</a> that she dedicated all her Olympic races to the folks back home. "Every single race I'm going to have that Colorado incident back of my mind," she said. "It's such a terrible thing and I'm so shaken by it. They're in my thoughts this entire process."

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