By Steve Keating
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – As excited as Ashley Twichell was about winning Pan American Games gold in the 10 kilometre open water swim she was no less delighted to get back to the United States and her infant son on Monday and planning a family trip to Paris.
After the Tokyo Olympics, where she became the oldest American swimmer since 1908 to make her Olympic debut at age 32, Twichell was prepared to retire and start a family.
She did take a break to have her son Lochlan but has put retirement on hold and looking forward to making the U.S. Paris Olympic team after a brilliant swim in Santiago on Sunday where she beat Brazil’s Tokyo Summer Games gold medallist and seven-times world champion Ana Marcela Cunha into second.
“Tokyo I definitely expected that to be the end of my career,” Twichell, who finished seventh in Tokyo, told Reuters. “It was a tough lead up to Tokyo having the Games delayed a year by COVID and I just felt like I was kind of physically and mentally done and was excited to start a family.
“After I had my son I just really felt like I needed something for myself again so I started getting back in the water.
“I would just go in the morning while my husband watched our son and just wanted to see where it would lead.”
It led the 34-year-old back to the Pan Am Games, where 12 years earlier in Guadalajara she had won a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle, and another battle with Cunha.
Twichell arrived in Santiago hoping for gold but unsure of her form after modest training times and going up against a strong field.
“That is what I was definitely hoping for but I didn’t know to be honest,” said Twichell. “My training times definitely aren’t what they were even in the lead up to Tokyo.
“Training is kind of a mix to sticking with what I have developed over the past year and it is also uncharted territory for sure being a mom now my son takes priority.
“I’m really just trying to enjoy every trip I get to take and every race and every experience and make the most of it.”
Part of the motivation for continuing on to Paris for is that it is something Twichell can share with her son and family.
While Twichell’s son was not in Santiago, the 17-month-old is well travelled having already accompanied mom to competitions in South Africa and Italy and looking to add a few more frequent flyer miles with a trip to Paris.
“That’s part of my motivation,” said Twichell. “Tokyo was amazing but it was tough having no family or friends able to come so it would definitely be really special to have them there.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Santiago. Editing by Christian Radnedge)
