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Golden Medals: Missy Franklin on TV; Cal Swimming medals at World University Games

Welcome to a special Cal Swimming edition of the offseason Golden Medals. What better way to start our summer coverage of Cal sports than by talking about Cal Athletes winning Gold Medals?

By Ruey Yen
Missy Franklin shares a laugh with Cierra Runge at the practice of the Arena Pro Series at Santa Clara few weeks ago.
Missy Franklin shares a laugh with Cierra Runge at the practice of the Arena Pro Series at Santa Clara few weeks ago.
Don Feria/Getty Images

Cal Swimming (Past, Present, Future) shines

Plenty of Cal swimmers can be found competing around the world this summer in various pools. All pools around the world are Bear Territory!

Here is the full list, from CalBears.com:

Golden Bears in International Summer Competition

World University Games - Gwangju, South Korea (July 4-11)
Rachel Bootsma – USA
Janardan Burns - USA
Henry Chung - Hong Kong
Jeremie DeZwirek - Canada
Connor Green - USA
Melanie Klaren – USA
Celina Li – USA
Jacob Pebley - USA
Elizabeth Pelton – USA
Josh Prenot - USA
Andrew Seliskar – USA
Seth Stubblefield - USA
Abbey Weitzeil – USA
USA Assistant Men's Coach - Yuri Suguiyama

Pan American Games - Toronto, Canada (July 14-18)
Jeremy Bagshaw - Canada
Natalie Coughlin – USA
Long Gutierrez – Mexico
Madison Kennedy – USA
Caitlin Leverenz – USA
Noemie Thomas - Canada

FINA World Championships - Kazan, Russia (Aug. 2-9)
Nathan Adrian - USA
Martti Aljand - Estonia
Stephanie Au – Hong Kong
Jeremy Bagshaw - Canada
Kathleen Baker – USA
Guy Barnea - Israel
Rachel Bootsma – USA
Lauren Boyle – New Zealand
Camille Cheng – Hong Kong
Damir Dugonjic - Slovenia
Anthony Ervin - USA
Missy Franklin – USA
Marina Garcia – Spain
Martin Liivamagi - Estonia
Katie McLaughlin – USA
Ryan Murphy - USA
Farida Osman – Egypt
Cierra Runge – USA
Tom Shields - USA
Noemie Thomas – Canada
Abbey Weitzeil – USA
USA Head Men's Coach - David Durden
USA Assistant Women’s Coach – Teri McKeever

2015 World University Games

The Golden Bears are well represented in the World University Games in South Korea (I can't help but imagine something like the games from Might Ducks 2 when I read about the World University Games).

From the official website of the games, here is an article on how Cal's own Rachel Bootsma is a mermaid.

Leaving for World University Games on Monday! Can't wait to race in red, white, and blue again! #goUSA ❤️

A photo posted by Rachel Bootsma (@r_bootsma15) on

Josh Prenot earned two golds at these games, winning both 200 IM and 200 Breast.

Jacob Pebley scored the gold in 200 Back.

With it being Asia, all the winner receives a plush mascot of the World University Games, apparently.

Liz Pelton won a silver in 100 Back. Rachel Bootsma got the bronze in the same event.

Incoming freshman, Abbey Weitzeil won a silver in 100 Free. As a member of the relay team that includes Liz Pelton, she also won gold in 4x100 Free relay.

Seth Stubblefield is a part of the US men's that won gold in the 4x100 Free relay.

Incoming Golden Bear, Andrew Seliskar is a part of the gold winning 4x200 Free relay.

So by my count, that's 7 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze so far (there is still another day or two of swimming) by the U.S. Golden Bears at the World University Games. Apologies if I omitted any of our other winners who may be representing another country. The CalBears.com article listed above has some more info on where Cal fans can watch the stream of the actions or find the results.

UPDATED: (Au wasn't even listed in the list of swimmers above)

2015 ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES AT SANTA CLARA

Cal swimmers (mostly alum) had a great outings at the meet in Santa Clara, which took place June 18th-21st.

W. 1500 Free was won by Calympian Lauren Boyle (of New Zealand).

Missy Franklin finished 3rd in W. 200 Free. Liz Pelton and Camile Chang finished 5th and 6th, respectively. Cierra Runge finished 10th.

Ryan Murphy finished 9th in M. 200 Free. He was the youngest swimmer in the field.

Cal alum (but now trains with USC) Jessica Hardy finished 2nd in W. 100 Breast.

W. 100 Back saw a rejuvenate (and recent ESPN The Body Issue covergirl) Natalie Coughlin wins the race over Rachel Boostma. Liz Pelton finished 5th and Missy Franklin finished 8th.

Farida Osman finished 2nd and Kelly Naze 5th in W. 100 Fly.

Tom Shields won M. 100 Fly. Seth Stubblefield and Justin Lynch finished 6th and 7th.

Caitlin Levernz finished 3rd in W. 400 IM. Celina Li was 7th.

Adam Hinshaw finished 9th in M. 400 IM.

Caitlin Leverenz finished 10th in W. 200 Fly.

Tom Shields placed 3rd in M. 200 Fly.

In W. 50 Free, Natalie Coughlin finished 3rd, Madison Kennedy 4th, Farida Osman got 5th.

Nathan Adrian won the men's 50 Free. Anthony Ervin finished 5th.

Surprisingly, Pelton and Franklin only finished 2nd and 3rd in W. 100 Back.

Ryan Murphy won M. 100 back. (Somehow I can't find video evidence of this.)

Josh Prenot, the physics major, finished 2nd in M. 200 Breast.

Farida Osman took home the 500 Fly title.

Cierra Runge finished 3rd in W. 400 Free and then 4th in W. 800 Free the next day.

Caitlin Leverenz finished 2nd in W. 200 IM.

Josh Prenot finished behind some guy named Michael Phelps in M. 200 IM.

Again a surprise, Franklin and Pelton finished 3rd and 4th in W. 200 Back.

Not a surprise, Ryan Murphy won M. 200 Back.

Jessica Hardy finished 2nd in W. 50 Breast.

Chuck Katis finished 3rd in M. 50 Breast.

Missy Franklin, Madison Kennedy, and Jessica Hardy finished 6th, 7th, and 9th in W. 100 Free. Osman, Cheng, and Pelton were 10th, 12th, and 15th.

All in all, Golden Bears won 7 of the 40 events (that included some relays where no Bears swam in) in Santa Clara that weekend. Not bad, not bad at all.

Cal Aquatic Center Groundbreaking

I have shared Nathan Adrian and Anthony Ervin's tweet on the ceremonies in a past edition of the Golden Medals. Here are some video footage of the ceremony with interviews with prominent Cal Aquatics alum.

Missy Franklin

In case you missed it, Missy Franklin won the top honor for best female collegiate athlete, the Honda Award, a couple of weeks ago.

Hopefully this photo doesn't need much of a caption because it captures my pure joy and excitement. I could not be more honored to receive the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Honda Cup. Getting to know all the incredible women in the 2015 class and being so inspired by them was by far the most rewarding part❤️ Thank you so much to the University of California Berkeley for giving me the opportunity to represent my dream school and to all my CAL teammates and coaches who mean more than the world to me, this wouldn't have been possible without you. And, an additional plus, I was able to wear a white dress because I'm tan enough now that you can tell a difference between my skin and the dress! #stillalittlesunburnt #ohwell #gobears #foreverbleedblueandgold

A photo posted by Missy Franklin (@missyfranklin88) on

Next Missy Franklin made a network TV appearance last week:

You can watch Missy Franklin's appearance on the FOX special "Beat the Champion" here.

While I think Missy is a lock for this award, but you can still help her win an ESPY next week by voting below:

With the Pan American games and the FINA World Championships results, there will be more Cal swimming news later this summer. I will try to give you a comprehensive results of the Golden Bears action (somewhat hard to do given the number of Golden Bears competing) later this summer.

GO BEARS!

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