Katie McLaughlin thrives in competition, but there was an episode last summer at a mall in Saudi Arabia that was a bit overwhelming for her.
During a trip to Dubai for the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, McLaughlin tried her hand at bartering for some inexpensive jewelry near the team hotel.
McLaughlin attempted to bargain, but she eventually needed the help of U.S. teammate Ella Eastin of Crean Lutheran.
“Ella had to do some of that for me,” McLaughlin said with a laugh. “I’d be, ‘Five (dollars) for this’ and they’d be, ‘No, 10 (dollars),’ and I’d be, ‘All right, 10. OK.’”
McLaughlin’s competitors in the pool probably wish she was as sweet and compromising during races.
The Santa Margarita junior showed plenty of determination this spring as she joined the ranks of Orange County’s national record-setting high school swimmers.
McLaughlin highlighted a sensational CIF-SS Division 1 final on May 17 by setting the national high school record in the 100-yard butterfly.
For that accomplishment, and a few others, McLaughlin is the Register’s Female Athlete of the Year.
——————————
RELATED:
Hot Shots: Athletes of the Year banquet (6-10-14)
2013-14 AOYs: The do-it-all star also won it all
2013-14 AOYs: Engel got the party started
2013-14 AOYs: Davis left legacy at St. Margaret’s
2013-14 champions: Fall sports
2013-14 champions: Winter sports
2013-14 champions: Spring sports
2013-14: All of the OCVarsity award winners
——————————
McLaughlin’s star has been rising on the U.S. circuit and the high school scene for the last couple of years, but she took another major step at the Division 1 meet.
Bill Rose, McLaughlin’s club coach with the Mission Viejo Nadadores, essentially turned her loose by resting her for the championships in Riverside. McLaughlin’s steady progression, he said, continued.
“I think she’s worked better this year than she’s ever worked,” Rose said. “And the fact is, we have another year or two to get her ready (for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials), so effectively (this) is a stepping stone.”
Rose said fortuitous scheduling factored in the decision to rest McLaughlin for CIF. With her next major meet being the U.S. Nationals in Irvine in mid-August, Rose believes she has enough time to ramp up her training for what they hope is another breakout meet.
McLaughlin delivered personal-best times in all of her events at the Southern Section finals. The Register’s girls swimmer of the year captured the 100 butterfly in a national-record 51.78 seconds, slicing 14 one-hundredths of a second off Jasmine Tosky’s 2011 standard.
When Tosky set the record, she wiped the oldest high school record off the books: Olympic champion Misty Hyman’s 52.41.
McLaughlin’s 51.78 also was her first national age-group record.
“I definitely knew what it (the record) was, but it was never a goal for me,” she said. “I don’t really like to put goal-times on myself because I’m hard on myself enough as it is.”
One of the benefits of setting the record, McLaughlin said, was a congratulatory message from Olympic champion and world-record holder Katie Ledecky, 17, whom she counts as a friend.
McLaughlin also lowered her own Division 1 and Orange County records in the 200 freestyle with a 1:44.66. Prior to McLaughlin breaking the 200 record in 2013, the legendary Sippy Woodhead of Mission Viejo held the top spot with a 1:45.89 from 1982.
McLaughlin was equally impressive on the relays at CIF. She rallied the Eagles’ 200 and 400 free relays to Division 1 titles with the fastest splits in the county: 22.11 and 48.46 for 50 and 100 yards of freestyle.
While McLaughlin is training well, keeping a balanced approach toward swimming also has helped, Rose said.
For McLaughlin, one of the biggest areas where she finds balance is with her friends, who serve as major sources of motivation for training and competition.
McLaughlin purposely doesn’t seek the individual spotlight that swimming sometimes thrusts upon her because of her friends, Rose said.
“She just enjoys her friends and she doesn’t want to be separated from them,” he said.
“We all know how gifted she is,” Santa Margarita teammate Jax Shoults said of McLaughlin. “She is such a team player and just extremely humble and modest in everything she does.”
There are other wells of motivation fueling McLaughlin, too.
She says her ability to finish races strong is a trait that she acquired with the Nadadores.
“If I finished and touched the wall and didn’t feel tired at the end, I wouldn’t be happy with my race no matter what,” she said. “Having that little bit (of energy) to push myself … definitely gives me an edge.”
McLaughlin increasingly ponders the 2016 Olympics. And there is the gold medal she captured in the 200 butterfly in Dubai.
“That was an amazing trip,” she said. “It really encourages me to swim fast to make another trip to go spend more time in cool places with these awesome people.”
And if she makes another U.S. team this summer, she might even get a chance to polish her bartering skills.
Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com
