The “Missy Franklin really is a good person” crusade continues apace. Now that the teen phenom is finished swimming competitively, at least on the high school level, she’s taking to the water for a meaningful awareness campaign.
As reported by Denver TV network KUSA, Franklin recently completed her SCUBA training at the Denver Aquarium. She finished the course alongside best friend Abby Cutler, and was filmed by filmmaker Kurt Miller for his project entitled “The Current”, which aims to raise awareness about how water can serve as a level playing field for people with disabilities.
According to Franklin, she was drawn to the project by her belief that everyone can feel the same under water.
"For water to be such a great way for everyone to be equal," Franklin told KUSA. "As soon as you get down there everyone is exactly the same. It doesn't matter if you have an amputated arm or a leg or you have all four limbs. We are all exactly the same."
While USA Today was quick to note the irony in Franklin claiming that water makes everyone equal (she is a heck of a lot faster than the rest of us, of course), Franklin still said that adjusting to Scuba was a daunting task.
Not that she would be scared away from anything in the water, of course. Given that the charitable foundation was all for a noble aquatic cause, we might see more of Missy underwater in a film nearby soon, even if she’s more likely to surface without a tank on her back the next time she’s on national TV.
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