by Craig Morgan, theSunDevils.com writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- When Sun Devil swimming coach Bob Bowman assessed his second season in Tempe, building more depth on the women's team was near the top of his to-do list.
Indiana high school state champ Emma Nordin, Tennessee champ Erica Laning and California section champ Nora Deleske were the prized recruits to join this year's freshman class, but Bowman also added a swimmer whose future is now when junior Fanny Teijonsalo transferred from Florida Golf Coast after a coaching change at that school.
Teijonsalo is a versatile swimmer who competed for Finland at the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan in August, finishing 15th with Finland's 4x100 meter free relay team. She also finished 15th in the world in the 100 IM at the FINA World Championships in December, and she was a College Swimming Coaches Association of America All-American after finishing 15th in the country in her school's record-breaking 200 free relay at the 2017 NCAA Swimming Championships.
"She is going to make a huge impact on the women's side, perhaps in terms of scoring points, but she also brings a lot of international experience to the table," Bowman said. "You like to have that element in your program."
Teijonsalo credits her father, Jussi, with influencing the key decisions in her swimming career.
"He took me swimming since I was two," said Teijonsalo, who is from Espoo, Finland's second largest city behind Helsinki. "He wanted me to learn to swim for water safety and I just never quit."
When she turned 10, her dad mentioned the possibility of swimming collegiately in the United States.
"That's really early to be thinking about college but he just said I could go if I wanted so that planted the seed and in high school I started considering it even more," she said.
Teijonsalo competed in many sports as child, including gymnastics. The versatile base she gained from those sports and her decision to focus on swimming led to a breakthrough year when she was 15. Her times dropped dramatically in several events and she made the Finnish National Team for the first time.
She posted her bio on collegeswimming.com and waited for interesting bites. When Florida Gulf Coast contacted her, she was off on the next leg of her swimming career.
"What's funny is that I had just committed to Florida Gulf Coast when I heard Bob was coming here and I was like, 'oh, that's interesting that he's doing college as well,'" Teijonsalo said.
Now that she is at ASU, Teijonsalo admits to an entirely different feeling from what she has experienced before.
"Before I came here, I was able to do good enough in practice and I feel there's no such thing here," she said, laughing. "You need to give 100 percent here. To get the routines in practice makes it automatic at meets."
Among the focal points are keeping her kick consistent in the fly when she gets tired and working on her catch in the freestyle.
Teijonsalo isn't shy about setting goals. She wants to break 52 seconds in the 100 fly, she wants to score at the NCAA Championships and she wants to compete for Finland at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo -- an opportunity her Finnish relay team missed out on in Rio de Janeiro by two spots.
"Missing Rio was tough for me but you need those experiences to get better," she said. "One of the first things Bob said at our first practice was 'it's not about every four years. It's about every day.'"
Teijonsalo likes the notion that she could be responsible for building the Sun Devil women's program into a Pac-12 and national power before she departs.
"Responsibility sounds like it's all on me," she said. "Obviously, it's on all of us but it is exciting to try to build that success vs. coming to an already successful program. That's why I came here. I like it here and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
TEMPE, Ariz. -- When Sun Devil swimming coach Bob Bowman assessed his second season in Tempe, building more depth on the women's team was near the top of his to-do list.
Indiana high school state champ Emma Nordin, Tennessee champ Erica Laning and California section champ Nora Deleske were the prized recruits to join this year's freshman class, but Bowman also added a swimmer whose future is now when junior Fanny Teijonsalo transferred from Florida Golf Coast after a coaching change at that school.
Teijonsalo is a versatile swimmer who competed for Finland at the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan in August, finishing 15th with Finland's 4x100 meter free relay team. She also finished 15th in the world in the 100 IM at the FINA World Championships in December, and she was a College Swimming Coaches Association of America All-American after finishing 15th in the country in her school's record-breaking 200 free relay at the 2017 NCAA Swimming Championships.
"She is going to make a huge impact on the women's side, perhaps in terms of scoring points, but she also brings a lot of international experience to the table," Bowman said. "You like to have that element in your program."
Teijonsalo credits her father, Jussi, with influencing the key decisions in her swimming career.
"He took me swimming since I was two," said Teijonsalo, who is from Espoo, Finland's second largest city behind Helsinki. "He wanted me to learn to swim for water safety and I just never quit."
When she turned 10, her dad mentioned the possibility of swimming collegiately in the United States.
"That's really early to be thinking about college but he just said I could go if I wanted so that planted the seed and in high school I started considering it even more," she said.
Teijonsalo competed in many sports as child, including gymnastics. The versatile base she gained from those sports and her decision to focus on swimming led to a breakthrough year when she was 15. Her times dropped dramatically in several events and she made the Finnish National Team for the first time.
She posted her bio on collegeswimming.com and waited for interesting bites. When Florida Gulf Coast contacted her, she was off on the next leg of her swimming career.
"What's funny is that I had just committed to Florida Gulf Coast when I heard Bob was coming here and I was like, 'oh, that's interesting that he's doing college as well,'" Teijonsalo said.
Now that she is at ASU, Teijonsalo admits to an entirely different feeling from what she has experienced before.
"Before I came here, I was able to do good enough in practice and I feel there's no such thing here," she said, laughing. "You need to give 100 percent here. To get the routines in practice makes it automatic at meets."
Among the focal points are keeping her kick consistent in the fly when she gets tired and working on her catch in the freestyle.
Teijonsalo isn't shy about setting goals. She wants to break 52 seconds in the 100 fly, she wants to score at the NCAA Championships and she wants to compete for Finland at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo -- an opportunity her Finnish relay team missed out on in Rio de Janeiro by two spots.
"Missing Rio was tough for me but you need those experiences to get better," she said. "One of the first things Bob said at our first practice was 'it's not about every four years. It's about every day.'"
Teijonsalo likes the notion that she could be responsible for building the Sun Devil women's program into a Pac-12 and national power before she departs.
"Responsibility sounds like it's all on me," she said. "Obviously, it's on all of us but it is exciting to try to build that success vs. coming to an already successful program. That's why I came here. I like it here and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."