BREAKING NEWS: LSU swimmer aims to make Olympic history in Paris this summer
Earlier this semester, an LSU professor was going around his classroom asking his graduate students what their names were and what their annual goals were.
Maggie Mac Neil, the former swimmer for LSU, didn’t want to brag when he approached her, but she also didn’t want to duck the topic.
Mac Neil recalled, “I said, ‘Well, I want to qualify for my second Olympics.'” “Oh, did you go before?” he asked.
“He probably went home and Googled me after that.”
You may easily locate a video of Maggie Mac Neil’s historic performance in the 100-meter butterfly final at the Tokyo Olympics three summers ago by using a search engine and typing in “Maggie Mac Neil 100 butterfly Tokyo.” She can be seen there, in Lane 7, tearing through the water at a speed of around 1.6 meters per second as she moves up from seventh place at the turn to take first place.
Taking off her goggles, she needs to squint to read the time on the scoreboard because she isn’t wearing glasses or contact lenses. Mac Neil then shouts, “Oh my God!” after realizing she had won the gold medal and setting records for the Americas, the Commonwealth, and Canada with a time of 55.59 seconds.
“I knew I must have done something good because I heard my name called,” she remarked.
Mac Neil may be able to blend in with the LSU campus, but in Canada, she is well-known.
Rick Bishop, the swimming and diving coach at LSU, stated, “She’s on billboards and buses.” “She’s very awesome.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave Mac Neil a call to congratulate her on winning the gold medal in swimming. Actor Ryan Reynolds, who was born in Canada, is her Instagram follower.
Mac Neil remarked nonchalantly, “I’ll hear from him from time to time.”
There’s nothing casual about her goal. And it goes well beyond just qualifying for her second straight Olympics this summer in Paris.
When Mac Neil gets in the pool, whether it’s at the LSU Natatorium or in her backyard kidney-shaped pool in London, Ontario, she’s chasing history.
No woman has ever won the 100 fly, as it is known, twice, much less in back-to-back attempts since the event was added to the Olympic program at the Melbourne Games in 1956. Then there’s the world record, 55.49, established by Swedish gold medallist Sarah Sjostrom in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
With two short course world records, two silver and one bronze Olympic relay medal, NCAA titles, and seven medals (five gold, one silver, and one bronze) from the Pan American Games in October, Mac Neil could retire from swimming at this point and be extremely happy with her career.
But there are still goals that drive her back to the pool, lap after lap after lap, training with now former LSU teammates.
“The only thing she hasn’t checked is winning an Olympic gold medal, holding the title, and breaking the world record in the long course,” Bishop remarked.
What set Mac Neil out on his path to Tokyo and, subsequently, Paris? guardian parents.
Maggie was 17 months old when the family moved into the house with the pool in the rear. It was surrounded by a large, black metal fence, and Mac Neil remembered that the rear entrance had “like, seven locks,” but that wasn’t enough. She soon headed to Mom and Tots swim class with her mother, Dr. Susan McNair, a family physician who practices under her maiden name in the workplace.
“The only thing she hasn’t checked is winning an Olympic gold medal, holding the title, and breaking the world record in the long course,” Bishop remarked.
What set Mac Neil out on his path to Tokyo and, subsequently, Paris? guardian parents.
Maggie was 17 months old when the family moved into the house with the pool in the rear. It was surrounded by a large, black metal fence, and Mac Neil remembered that the rear entrance had “like, seven locks,” but that wasn’t enough. She soon headed to Mom and Tots swim class with her mother, Dr. Susan McNair, a family physician who practices under her maiden name in the workplace.
“When (Cal) fell through he said, ‘If you want to do something in Paris, you should come down here,’ ” Mac Neil said, though she admitted, “I never saw myself in the South.”
After returning from the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Mac Neil and her father Edward came to Baton Rouge to scope it out. The move she never thought she would make became a rewarding one, right down to fishing and enjoying her first crawfish boil with current LSU swimming senior Hannah Bellina and her family.
“It’s been such an amazing overall cultural experience,” Mac Neil said. “Everyone in Canada asks me how it is. It’s so different and unbelievable.”
Swimming success followed Mac Neil to the bayou, too. She won the NCAA 50-yard freestyle national title with an NCAA record time of 20.79, won five Southeastern Conference titles and was named 2023 SEC female swimmer of the year. She wrapped up her LSU eligibility at the end of last year.
“She has just loved it” at LSU, McNair said. “She’s loved the team. She still trains and socializes with many of them. The humidity gets her because of her asthma and there’s no air conditioning in the (LSU) pool. But it’s really been a great fit for her.”
If Mac Neil qualifies for the Olympics and goes to Swimming Canada’s Olympic trials in Montreal from May 13–19, she will go to Normandy on July 11 to join the team training camp. In Paris, Mac Neil will have to miss the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 26 along the Seine since her competitions begin the following day, on the first full day of competition, with preliminary rounds for the women’s 100 fly and 4×100-freestyle relay finals. The swimming tournament concludes with the 100 fly final on July 28 and the relay finals a week later.
She currently has no intentions to compete in another Olympic cycle. She is not going to Los Angeles 2028. Her goal is to become a sports lawyer by attending law school. I turned 24 on February 26 and the next chapter of my life is calling.
But first, she wants to depart Google with one more significant Olympic accomplishment, along with that LSU professor and everyone else.