Olympic golden girl lifts US massacre town

A bloody movie theatre massacre cast a shadow over this corner of Colorado, but the golden Olympic performance of local teenager Missy Franklin has proved a light in the darkness.

The 17-year-old high school senior with her open smile was a minor local star before she set off for her first Olympic Games in London, but she has since set the swimming world alight and cheered the mood in her US hometown.

Franklin attends high school in Aurora, the town where earlier this month a crazed gunman opened fire at a midnigh showing of a new Batman film and killed 12 moviegoers, and lives in nearby Centennial, where he is on trial.

She heard about the shootings in London, where she was preparing for the event of her young life, and spoke from the heart.

"Every single race I'm going to have that Colorado incident back on my mind. It's such a terrible thing and I'm so shaken by it. They're in my thoughts this entire process," she said.

Shaken, perhaps, but not defeated.

Franklin chalked up a bronze medal in the four by 200-meter freestyle relay and won gold in the 100-meter backstroke, despite racing only 15 minutes after qualifying for the finals in the 200-meter freestyle.

And she has more races to come.

"With everything that's been going on here lately, the wildfires and the shootings in Aurora, it's really special,"
said Tom Suko, 27, a cashier at a sporting goods store near Franklin's home in the Denver suburbs.

"These people can use someone to rally around," he said.

"She's a great story and someone a community can be proud of."