Melanie Margalis: The USA swimmer who turned anxiety into medley magic

Melanie Margalis has a long and complicated history with the individual medley.

On paper, it would appear to be an event that the swimmer enjoys due to her success. The Team USA veteran secured fourth in the 200 IM at the last two World Championships, while she was the World No. 1-ranked 400 IM swimmer in 2020.

But underneath her ability used to lie a crippling performance anxiety, particularly in the gruelling 400m version of the race.

“The event freaks me out so bad,” Margalis told NBC Sports. “I wish it didn’t. People are like, Mel, you’re so good. I’m like, you don’t understand what it does to me.”

This revelation was all the more surprising given the 28-year-old’s experience.

At the Rio 2016 Olympics she helped Team USA win gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, and was part of the world championship-winning 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay teams in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

But the individual medley is a different beast altogether, and is known by many as swimming’s toughest race.

Enlisting a sports psychologist

With the help of a sports psychologist, Margalis overcame her fear.

“I believe so heavily in the mind-body connection, and I believe you tell yourself in your mind that you can do something, your body’s going to do it,” Margalis told True Sport. “Sometimes we’re doing crazy practices, you have to think, ‘No, I can do this.’ Once you realise how much the body and mind are connected, it’s all about positive self-talk.

"Keep the mind-body connected, keep that mental toughness, and it will all keep working in your favour.”

It worked. In the run-up to the 2021 USA Olympic Trials, the former University of Georgia student recorded personal best times, making her the overwhelming favourite to clinch one of the two available 400 IM Olympic berths.

However, the 400 IM is still arguably the hardest event for a veteran swimmer to excel in. And so it proved in Omaha, where the 29-year-old came up agonisingly short.

Teenager Emma Weyant swam an unbelievable final leg to take the final on the night, while Hali Flickinger finished 0.12s ahead of third-placed Margalis to claim second. Had Margalis re-produced her quickest time of 2021, she would have cruised onto the plane for Japan.

An Olympic lifeline

One of the unique features of elite swimming is that there is usually an immediate chance for redemption, following disappointment.

While Margalis' narrow miss in the 400 was undoubtedly devastating, she still has a chance to make the team in the 200 IM.

“How you think and how you really present yourself when you’re down is what’s going to help you build yourself back up,” Margalis said of her psychology training in 2020. “Don’t think that just because you’ve had a bad week of practices that your whole sports career is over.”

This mental mantra has never been more apt.

Margalis has good cause for optimism too.

She has qualified for an Olympics in the 200 IM before, finishing fourth in the final at Rio 2016. The shorter race could also prove a better fit for her age.

Competition will be typically tough, with Madisyn Cox, Alex Walsh and Kathleen Baker also in the running. Since the start of 2019, the quartet are separated by just half a second.

However, with the disappointment of the 400 to spur her on, Margalis has the added motivation of redemption.

Should she make the team, Margalis would become the third-oldest woman to make the U.S. Olympic swimming roster in an individual pool event after fellow Olympic gold medallists Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres.