Missy Franklin may be the best women’s swimmer in London, but she’s also a regular 17-year-old girl, which means getting excited about driver’s licenses, thinking about senior homecoming and playing “As Long As You Love Me” on repeat.
Her love of Canadian pop star Justin Bieber — known in medical circles as Bieber fever — was mentioned during NBC’s spoiler-ific coverage of her historic gold-medal win on Monday night. Word got back to the Biebs that the biggest star at the Olympics was a fan and he returned the favor.
“Heard @FranklinMissy is a fan of mine,” he wrote. “now im a fan of hers too. CONGRATS on winning GOLD! #muchlove.” I don’t know about you, but my hipster glasses steamed up just reading that.
Franklin checked Twitter on Tuesday morning and was thrilled when she saw the message from the pop star. She responded after Bieber’s tweet in quotes, “I just died! Thank you!”
Missy’s parents, Dick and D.A., appeared on “Today” on Tuesday and were asked about how their daughter reacted to the Bieber tweet.
Dick said Missy wrote them a text in all caps that read, “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!” They also said the brush with the Biebs “made her morning.”
