Amanda Paulson raced the 50-yard freestyle four times this season, and four times Paulson won it.

The two-time Iowa State most valuable swimmer has won the event 21 times in her career, with more likely to come. She is only a junior.

In fact, as a freshman, Paulson won the 50-yard freestyle race in all eight dual meet competitions. She holds the Iowa State all-time record in the event, with a time of 22.78 seconds, and seven of the top-20 times in the event overall.

However, her dominance in the 50-yard freestyle began long before she arrived in Ames.

“I was built with a lot of fast-twitch muscle (fibers) and when I started out swimming I was just able to go fast,” Paulson said. “People got excited about how fast I went in short bursts, and I liked seeing how excited people were to watch it. It motivated me to continue to get faster.”

In Paulson’s opinion, the 50-yard freestyle is the most fun event to watch, because it’s so fast. She said a slow start or a bad turn can ruin the race for a swimmer because there is no time to recover from a mistake, which makes it that much more exciting.

Paulson has won plenty of other events over the course of her career, but the 50-freestyle has always been ‘her baby’ said ISU head coach Duane Sorenson.

“She loves that race and she takes a lot of pride in it,” Sorenson said of Paulson in the 50-yard freestyle. “She is a fierce competitor and she is so determined in that race.”

With Paulson being so dominant in the event, some might think she would go into the race with the mindset that winning is already a done deal, because time and again she wins.

Though, Paulson says her approach to the race is actually much different.

“I try to go in confident, but the times are all so close and I know anybody can win the race,” Paulson said. “But I never expect to win. I like to go out and earn it.”

Paulson may never expect to win, but that might not be true of some of her competitors. Paulson said she has built up a resume and reputation that often ‘intimidates’ other competitors in the event.

While she may intimidate competitors, she takes on a much different role towards her younger teammates.

After seeing Paulson’s successes, underclassmen are eager to learn from her and the other ISU sprinters are often faced with a tall task: trying to keeping up with Paulson.

“She definitely pushes me in practice and in meets I try to stay up with her,” said freshman Savanna Townsend, who has the fastest 50-yard freestyle on the team by someone other than Paulson.

Paulson is happy to have swimmers on her team to compete against, and thinks it’s a big reason why the Cyclones have been as successful as they have been early in the season.

Paulson is hoping all the hard work pays off as she works to attain her season goal.

“I just want to go into every race without looking at (competitors’) times and just take it,” Paulson said. “But it would be really fun to take first at the (Big 12) conference meet.”