The latest in the line of swimmers considering comebacks is 31-year old American Brooke Bennett.
The alarms in my head started going off late last night when Bennett tweeted that the “#USADA owns my life…lol!”
Then this morning, this article was posted about Bennett getting back into Masters Swimming and supporting the Swim Across American program.
The latest USADA results have not been released yet, but we've been able to confirm that Bennett is back in the testing pool. This means that once her mandatory 9-month wait is up, she would become eligible to compete in major US competition once again, and she would be much younger than the other two major American comebacks of late – Janet Evans and Dara Torres.
She's training with Randy Reese at the Clearwater Aquatic Team in Florida, and anyone who knows Reese's training knows that you don't do his workouts just to dabble in open water races.
This would be a huge story, as Bennett is, in my opinion, one of the most likable swimmers of her generation. The 31-year old is a three-time Olympic Champion, including a 400-800 double in Sydney.Before we get too excited, though, a sanity-check is needed.
First, Bennett's 9-month window would not be up in time for her to compete and try to qualify for this year's Olympic Team. Besides that, Bennett has a burgeoning career in sports broadcasting, and those who have worked with her have raved about her consumate professionalism and see her as a bright star in the future.
In fact, the great Summer Sanders, herself an Olympic Champion-turned sports journalist - has said that she's a huge fan of Bennett the broadcaster.
So for now, let's consider her re-entry into the drug-testing pool as a pun-able testing of the waters. If she can't balance her dryland career with her training, then my feeling is that the comeback isn't going to happen. It's still something to be excited about.