London swim star Maggie Mac Neil eyes Pan Am Games, Olympic swan song
Maggie Mac Neil isn’t narrowing her focus down to next year’s Paris Olympics quite yet.
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Maggie Mac Neil isn’t narrowing her focus down to next year’s Paris Olympics quite yet.
“I’m still in school so it’s been a busy fall,” the 23-year-old London swim star and Louisiana State University Masters student said. “One of my classes is just a lot of work. (Study) seven articles a week, then write a five-page paper every week. But I’m glad I’m in school. Especially leading into this year, I think I would just be focused on swimming and if something wasn’t going well, I would over-analyze it.
“This keeps my mind stimulated in a different way.”
It’s not like she has been stuck in Baton Rouge all fall, though.
This past weekend, Mac Neil finished fourth in her 100-metre butterfly in a stacked field at the World Cup stop in Athens, Greece. Her 57.13-second performance was just behind American Torri Huske (57.12) for third while reigning world champ Zhang Yufei established a Cup record (56.06) and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was second (56.92).
All four women are expected to be medal contenders in the same event next year in France.
“The 100 fly for years has been close,” Mac Neil said. “I won in Tokyo by 0.05 (seconds). It’s gone back and forth. Honestly, I’m glad (Zhang) won (the worlds this past summer) because I don’t have all the pressure and spotlight heading into the Olympics, obviously, going in as (defending) champion. It will be pretty good and I can live a little bit lower than I would have. It’s always easier to be the one chasing than the one being chased.
“I’ll have that mentality and hopefully, it will help me heading into Paris.”
From Greece, Mac Neil was heading straight to Santiago, Chile this week to headline the Canadian team at the Pan Am Games – one of the only major international events she has yet to compete at in her senior career. She is planning to compete in the 100 fly, 50- and 100-metre freestyle and likely be part of four relays.
She will serve as an ambassador for the event and be a favourite to match or even surpass the five medals she won at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
“They flew me down (to Santiago) for a weekend in January to do a photo shoot and start to do the (publicity) campaigns,” she said. “That was fun to see the city and what it’s going to be like. Since Tokyo, which was essentially a lock-down (Olympics) village, it’s nice to meet people from other sports because we didn’t really get to do that there. I’ll stay for a bit in Chile afterwards and my mom will fly down. I don’t get to go home as much as I used to.”
Starting in the New Year, Mac Neil will put her head down and start her path to Paris. She plans to skip the world championships in Doha, Qatar in February after a packed three years that included an Olympics, Pan Ams, Commonwealth Games, three long-course worlds and two short-course worlds.
“It’s kind of ridiculous if you think about it,” she said. “That’s so many high-level international meets in a short window. I don’t really want to think too much about it right now. I’m enjoying swimming and soon enough, it will be, ‘Oh, wow, Paris is coming up’. I’ll keep going and doing the good work I have been doing and start to become more goal-oriented when it comes to meets.”
Mac Neil is much closer to the finish line than the starting blocks of her highly decorated pool journey. She finishes school – for now, she jokes – in May 2024, two months before what she calls her final Olympics.
“I’m not doing another one and I’ve pretty much decided that,” she said. “I planned on retiring in 2026 but I’m re-evaluating that. As my body breaks down and I get mentally ready to move on to the next thing, we’ll see how long I stay involved in swimming.
“I think I’ll do a short-course season after Paris. It’s more fun for me. I know theoretically if I was to retire today, I would be satisfied with everything I’ve done.”
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