Inspiration From Late Mother Lifted Mia Rankin Throughout Accomplished Ohio State Career
In her final collegiate championship meets, Ohio State senior Mia Rankin excelled at the Big Ten and NCAA Championships. A big best time in the 400 IM at the conference meet earned her second place behind teammate Sienna Angove and earned her qualification to her second consecutive national-level meet. After narrowly making the cut one year before, Rankin nearly scored points this time around, finishing just one hundredth outside of 16th place. A day later, she swam her final race for the Buckeyes, winning the opening heat of the 1650 freestyle.
“I definitely cried a little bit before my race. I’m not sure if I’m going to be done yet. Knowing this is the end of college swimming, it’s a lot. It’s been an emotional day. In a good way, though,” Rankin said. “It’s only my second NCAAs. But this has been by far my favorite year of college, swimming, being a senior, being a leader now. I’ve also had my most success in college this year, too.”
In that regard, Rankin put together the quintessential conclusion to a college career that had not been without its frustration, but her swimming journey included a depth of emotion and sorrow that few of her teammates or rivals were forced to endure. Rankin had spent more than seven years locked in on her sport and working to reach its highest levels while remembering the inspiration provided by her late mother, Maureen “Mo” Rankin.
Mia Rankin — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
In the fall of 2017, Mia was a freshman at Xavier College Prep in Phoenix with her mother as head coach. Mo had battled bladder cancer previously, and tests revealed a recurrence shortly before the high school season began. Mo began the season on deck, but as her treatment regimen took its toll, she was forced to step away, and her husband Mark began sending in workouts for an assistant coach to deliver to the team.
Mo entered the hospital September 19 and passed away six days later. But even in light of that devastating development, the team rallied as Mark assumed regular coaching duties for the team. Less than seven weeks later, they attended the Arizona High School State Championships in Mesa and won an emotional state title. Mia played a key role, racing the 500 free, which had been her mother’s main event, and she dropped 12 seconds from her lifetime best in an epic race where she ended up finishing second.
For Mia, swimming had been a haven even during the toughest days. The day Mo passed away, Mia attended afternoon practice with her club team. Her bonds with teammates and the joy she derived from training, a quality inherited from her mother, carried her.
“I feel like it definitely made me grow up really fast. I was always kind of a little brat. I was very loud. I was a big troublemaker when I was younger. I matured so quick after that. And it helped because a lot of the older girls on my team really took me under their wing,” Mia said. Those who supported Mia included “not just people like I met through the sport, people she met through the sport and had relationships with. I was very unfortunate for that, and I think that’s what helped me a lot through high school, having a huge support system.”
At that point, Mia was already a Junior Nationals qualifier, and during high school, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials. After placing 10th at the Wave I meet in 2021, Rankin moved cross-country to Columbus to begin her career with the Buckeyes. At first, she did not tell her teammates about losing her mom, not because she was afraid to but because she saw no reason to include it in a conversation. That changed one Saturday morning in 2022, days before the five-year anniversary of Mo’s death, during a team meeting when the swimmers would go around and each share something.
“I literally was broken down crying. I wasn’t a huge crier. I don’t think I did much of that at all my freshman year. So I think it took people by surprise. And we had recruits that weekend, too. I was like, ‘I can’t believe I just did that,’” Rankin said. “I feel like it made my teammates see me in a different light. As a freshman, I was (the person who) love(s) swimming. I love training and whatever. And I feel like when they knew that part of me, they were like, ‘Oh, whoa, that’s another side.’”
Over the next few seasons, Rankin came into her own as a swimmer but also in a leadership role for her younger teammates, at least one of whom committed to the Buckeyes after listening to Rankin’s emotional story during her recruiting trip. “Stepping into a leadership position really made me just step up altogether,” she said. “I had to be tough for the team, make sacrifices, put on a good face all the time, and just do it for more than just myself, which is really exciting.”
Rankin spent much of her senior season convincing her team that a Big Ten title was within reach. A streak of four consecutive wins was snapped in 2024 when Indiana won the title by a half-point, which Rankin called “one of the most heartbreaking things ever. It was horrible. That night, I was literally like, ‘I can’t let this happen next year. This will not happen. I don’t care what I have to do. I will not feel this again.’”
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The conference this year included Indiana and Michigan teams that would end up top-10 at the NCAA Championships along with new entrant Southern California, giving Ohio State a major challenge to reclaim first place. At the championship meet, the team would only win two events, with Lena Hentschel and Paola Pineda sweeping the top spots in 1-meter diving before Angove and Rankin went 1-2 in the 400 IM, with Angove, Mila Nikanorov and Krista Marlin providing additional top-three placings.
Even many within the Ohio State camp had doubts about the team’s high-end talent compared to conference rivals, but depth made the difference. Ohio State qualified enough swimmers for the championship, consolation and bonus finals to come out on top, scoring 1313.5 to Indiana’s 1255.5 and Michigan’s 1149.5.
For this senior in her last conference meet, feelings of vindication welled up alongside a sense of glee reminiscent of another team-title-winning effort more than seven years earlier.
“I stand by the fact that I believed the whole season, even though everyone doubted. I always thought, ‘There’s still a chance we totally could,’” Rankin said. “I was in disbelief probably an hour after we found out.
“That was definitely up there with probably the best moments ever. It even felt a lot like my freshman year in high school, when we had won state after my mom passed away. I always said that was definitely top-three best feelings I’ve ever had in my life.”
As Rankin moved through her high school and college years, her mother remained a major source of strength and toughness. While still in high school, she had Mo’s quote “Feel your power” tattooed on her shoulder. She was 17 at the time, still requiring parental permission, which Mark granted after Mia earned her Olympic Trials cut. Mia also wears one of her mom’s necklaces to every swim meet and whenever she is experiencing an especially difficult time.
In the pool, qualifying for national-level meets in events like the 400 IM and 1650 free requires grit and dedication in training, and Mia embraced those grueling training days with Mo in mind.
“I know she was like me,” Mia said. “She loved swimming. She loved hard work. I feel like I get a lot of that from her. Even if she didn’t explicitly teach it to me, I feel like it’s ingrained in me because of her. She also got to see me before she passed. I was a few years into actually caring about swimming, like working hard. I think she imprinted on my love of working hard.
“The whole time I was growing up, that’s what I knew about my mom. She’s so tough, she’s so brave, she’s strong, all that stuff. I like to believe that’s why I’m like that.”