Brooklyn Teenager Qualifies for the Olympics

Lia Neal will not only be representing the United States at the 2012 Olympics in London, she will be representing Brooklyn.

The 17-year-old Brooklynite placed fourth in the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympic trials Saturday, a place that earned her a spot on the 4×100-meter freestyle relay team, The New York Times reports.

She is the second African-American woman to make a U.S. Olympic swim team, according to The Washington Post.

Neal, an 11th-grader at the Convent of the Sacred Heart school in Manhattan, is the daughter of an African-American father and an Asian mother. She grew up in Flatbush near the Brooklyn Navy Yard and has been swimming for Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics on the Upper East Side since she was 8-years-old.

The Times noted Neal touched the wall in a personal best 54.33 seconds. She was behind Jessica Hardy, Missy Franklin and Allison Schmitt, and just ahead of the American-record holder, Amanda Weir, and the 11-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin.

"Those last few strokes definitely were really tough,” Neal told The Times. “At that point I was just flailing my arms and legs, doing whatever I could to get to the wall."