When it comes to next year’s Olympics, Ashley Twichell has a leg up on most of the other swimmers in the world.

After coming up short of achieving am Olympic berth in 2008, 2012 and 2016, she earned a spot on her first team with a sixth-place finish in the 10k race at 2019 World Championships. The top-10 finishers automatically qualify for the team.

So, when this year’s Olympic Games Tokyo were postponed a year, Twichell, while disappointed like everyone else, felt an unfamiliar but comforting sense of relief.

“Having qualified for Tokyo in July of 2019, I had been dialed in and in pretty intense training mode since last fall, and felt like I was in the best shape of my life in March when the postponement was announced,” she said.

“However, I think that all we can do is work with what we have been given, and so I am definitely trying to use this year as an opportunity to get stronger and faster.”

Twichell said that when the pandemic hit American awareness last March and the public went into safe seclusion – and pools were closed – she tried her best to maintain some semblance of normalcy in her life in and out of the water.

“It was strange in the sense that those two months were what I was anticipating to be two of the most intense training months leading up to Trials and the Games, and it turned out to be the most relaxed 12 weeks of my entire swimming career,” she said. “I really tried to accept it as it was, and just make the most of it.”

Fortunately, Apex, N.C., where she lives has a lake nearby – Jordan Lake – and she was able to get into the water while she was out of the pool. When she’s not lake training, Twichell spends time with the TAC Titans Swim Club in Cary, N.C., as well as the Olympic Training Center and in Mission Viejo, Calif., with coach Bill Rose.

For her, it really wasn’t even about staying in shape physically, especially since the swimming competition schedule was cleared due to COVID.

Rather, it was so beneficial for her mental health to just be able to get out in a peaceful and serene atmosphere and escape for 45 minutes.

“My husband (Derek) came with me every single time, and I will always be really appreciative of that very unexpected time we were able to spend together,” she said. “Two things that have been really important for me to strive to maintain are continuing to take things day by day and not stressing or wasting mental energy on things that are completely out of my control.

“I really try to wake up each morning and make a conscious decision to focus on putting my best self forth, doing what I can with what I have. That being said, I also think it is so important to give oneself grace, and some days are certainly better than others. I also really try to always maintain perspective.”

That perspective – along with hard work and tremendous dedication for more than a decade is what propelled Twichell to make her first Olympic team.

When she qualified for the team in South Korea in 2019, she said she felt myriad of emotions but the two most overpowering were excitement and relief.

Now 31 and in the final stages of her swimming career, Twichell said she never thought she’d still be swimming in 2019. But after narrowly missing making the 2012 team, a “drive and fire” were ignited within her to one day become an Olympian.  

“I never gave myself a ‘set-in-stone’ timeline,” she said. “For me, it was healthiest to take it year by year. I never wanted to be swimming because I ‘had’ to. I wanted to be swimming because I loved it.

“I actually remember having a conversation with Coach (Bill) Rose via text in early 2017, telling him that I thought I would retire after summer 2017. I just felt like I was maybe getting ready to move on; and then I won a gold medal in the 5K at Worlds that summer. It was like that passion and drive that had lost a bit of its flame got reignited.”

Now that her swimming life has returned to some kind of normalcy – she resumed competition last month at the U.S. Open in Greensboro, N.C. – Twichell said she is as focused as ever on training hard and smart for next summer’s Olympic Trials and the Olympics.

A distance swimmer in the pool, she said she’s looking forward to Trials especially with her best event – the 1500 freestyle – an Olympic event in 2021.

For her it would be a privilege to compete in both the pool and open water in Tokyo – something very few swimmers worldwide have accomplished.

But as someone who didn’t dream of becoming an Olympian as a child, everything she’s accomplishing now is some serious gravy.

“I have loved being able to bounce back and forth between competing in the pool and open water these past several years,” said Twichell, who loves to read, cook and spend time with Derek when she’s not traveling or swimming. “I feel like they complement each other really well - training for pool events sharpens my speed, which is necessary for the end of a 10K, which almost always comes down to a sprint finish.

“I also think these past 9 years of competing in open water has definitely made me mentally tougher, which of course is advantageous in the pool. There are so many different elements to account for in an open water race, and so many variables that are completely out of your control, that it has really forced me to work on my mental strength.”

And with her swimming career coming to its storied conclusion after the Olympics next year (she was planning to retire in 2020 until the postponement), Twichell said she is excited for the next phase of her life – starting a family with Derek and whatever else life holds for her.

A psychology major at Duke, she said she has always been drawn to the world of sports psychology and could potentially venture into that field post-swimming.

During the COVID break last spring, she also gave more than 200 hours of learn-to-swim lessons to local children so opening up some type of swim school is also a possibility.

“I was able to swim before I could walk, and I have loved the water for as long as I can remember, so to be able to give that back to other kids in the form of water safety skills is so rewarding, and so important.

“Today more than ever, I am grateful for my family’s health, and know that there are much bigger, more important things than swimming. I am also so incredibly grateful for those on the frontlines, our health care workers and essential workers.”