At 5' 7" she is the shortest player on the team and one of the slowest swimmers, but she makes up for it with an iron will; Matthewson has had two shoulder surgeries and is currently playing with torn ligament in her elbow that will likely require Tommy John surgery. The kind of respect Matthewson commands was evident during the tense third quarter against Hungary. Krikorian sets the scene: “The energy in the building was off the charts. The game had gotten kind of hectic. I call timeout and everyone has something to say. I don’t think anyone is making sense, including myself.”
At this point Matthewson spoke up: “Everyone take a deep breath and calm down.” The huddle went utterly silent, and the Americans showed great poise in closing out the game.
'via Blog this'