STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Michal Liberman presumed her collegiate swimming career prematurely had ended when a mishap on a trampoline resulted in an ACL tear in her left knee early in her senior season at Eastern Michigan University during the fall of 2018.
Flash forward a year and she is a graduate student at Stony Brook University and the women's swimming program's new record-holder in the 100-yard butterfly.
Her swimming revival next will take Liberman to her native Israel after final exams to compete in two weeks in the country's national short course championships.
"It's an amazing thing to me," Liberman said. "I don't believe in second chances as a rule. It doesn't happen. And I got a second chance to not only go back to swimming, but to finish the way I wanted it."
Liberman produced a school-record and ECAC Winter Championships meet record time of 54.89 in the 100 fly on Sunday en route to earning her third America East Swimmer of the Week honor of the season.
"I'm not yet at my best times," Liberman said. "But I'm very, very close. And I hadn't been close for years — like since my sophomore year, maybe. It's so exciting, especially after everything I've been through, to be here and to have this opportunity to work with a coach who really, really believes in me."
The opportunity with the Seawolves never would have materialized had Liberman not had a year of eligibility remaining after graduating from Eastern Michigan in May with a bachelor's degree in communications and public relations.
Liberman tore the ACL in her left knee in a freak trampoline accident in September 2018. She initially tried to rehab and compete as a senior at Eastern Michigan, but the pain proved too severe and she ultimately underwent surgery on Jan. 30.
Liberman documented her ACL tear rehab on video.
Meanwhile, during that winter break, while her teammates traveled to Florida for training, Liberman had returned to her native Rosh Haayin, Israel, located about 25 minutes north of Tel Aviv. There, she met her current boyfriend, former Yale swimmer Aaron Greenberg.
It was Greenberg who eventually steered Liberman to Stony Brook.
Raised in Israel and not intimately acquainted with NCAA rules, Liberman initially did not realize she could regain a final year of eligibility because she was unable to compete as a senior due to injury. Once she finally learned of her remaining eligibility, Greenberg told Liberman about his admiration for Stony Brook head coach
Kerry Smith, who had been an assistant coach at Yale when Greenberg swam for the Ivy League program.
Smith and Liberman hit it off and she ultimately enrolled at Stony Brook for graduate school this academic year.
"I really loved her," Liberman said.
Liberman's Seawolves career will continue through the remainder of this season, including the America East Championships Feb. 13-16 in Worcester, Mass. She plans to continue her academic pursuits at Stony Brook in 2020-21 while completing an MBA in marketing.
Next up for Liberman is competing in the Israeli national short course championships late this month.
Liberman previously represented Israel at the European Championships in her home country and at the World University Games in South Korea, both in 2015. She then fell off the national radar because her times slowed and she was unable to qualify.
While international qualifications are not at stake during this month's national competition, Liberman nonetheless wants to prove to her countrymen that she can produce top times in her 20s.
She will compete in the 50 and 100 backstroke and fly.
"It's just to make a statement that I'm back," Liberman said. "I'm putting myself back out there after being in the shed to prove I'm here and I'm getting faster, so that whoever 'R.I.P.'d me —'Oh, she had a good career, she represented Israel in a few cute meets' — to show them I'm not done."
