Missy Franklin

Missy Franklin -- the Olympic prodigy who won 4 gold medals as a 17-year-old in the London Games -- has announced she's putting an end to her swimming career at just 23 years old. The first American woman ever to earn 4 golds in one Olympics in any sport announced in a statement on ESPN on…

The parents of newly-minted gold medalist Missy Franklin had such bad seats last night, they nearly had to watch her record-breaking swim through binoculars -- but TMZ has learned, NBC upgraded them BIG TIME ... at the very last minute. A rep for the US Swimming Team tells TMZ, Missy's parents had…