Heading into the 2024, Regan Smith had been one Olympics, won 3 medals there, won 9 world championship medals, won an NCAA title, and set 3 world records. But none of it was enough to make Smith feel good about her accomplishments in the pool.
Since the 2022 season, Smith has been slowly working on changing how she views her swimming and the success that comes with it. For much of her career, she would enter a race and feel immense pressure to win, to the point that she would derail herself before she even hit the water. Heading into her races in Paris, she was able to see herself as a fan might, as pure entertainment, and with that came the freedom to swim her own race.
Regan walked away from Paris with 3 silver medals in her individual events and 2 gold medals as a part of Team USA relays. Listen to the growth Smith has made as she describes taking control of her swimming and having pride in her accomplishments.
Rooting for her. She used to look so sad and empty inside and there is a newer lightness to her being.
I hope she continues to enjoy herself, is proud of herself, and gives zero Fks what anyone thinks–especially you couch commentary haters here on swimswam. Regan Smith owes you nothing.
This might be my favorite SwimSwam interview of all time. I really enjoyed getting to hear Regan’s honest thoughts on her performances this summer.
Can’t wait to see what she’ll do in SCM this fall.
That makes me so happy to hear🥹 Thank you!!
It takes a lot of humility to acknowledge one’s problems and a lot of strength to pull through said issues. Regan is both, on top of being a phenomenal swimmer.
She is the World and Olympic record holder and the best female backstroker in the world currently.
Thank you, I needed the laugh.
The best female backstroker currently is unquestionably Kaylee McKeown. She holds more backstroke WRs and titles (World Championship or Olympic) than Regan. There is no metric by which Regan is better than her, no matter how phenomenal she is (currently).
You are delusional if you believe anyone other than McKeown is the best female backstroker in the world.
well, technically Regan’s best time in the 100 is faster, so ….
What about the 200? How many of the top 10 times in history belong to McKeown vs Smith? You’re cherry picking your evidence here
as a neutral I was rooting for USA in the medley relay because of her, and I’m happy she won gold with a OR. I know all gold medal counts, but I think that for a swimmer as talented as her having her only gold swimming the heats of the mixed medley (a race that I still rate as a fine show, but not as serious as other events) would have been unsatisfying
The perseverance that Regan showed over the past 5 years is a fantastic example for people in all walks of life, but especially kids and young adults.
Learning to embrace expectations is one of the biggest challenges for all.
Team USA is soooo lucky to have her heading toward LA.
Seriously, almost all of the elite swimmers are literally kids. I had a chance to be on deck for a Pro Series meet. I paid attention to who was approachable, who was nice and who was a jerk. I have no skin in this, the only thing I know from what I saw is Ms. Smith loves pink and she was the nicest and easiest person on deck. 30-40 years from know who is going to care what she did in the pool vs what she’ll do out of it
The apology for language was hilarious in comparison to the rest
Honestly I do see her beating Kaylee in the future because in some ways the pressure is off now? All the best to her, she seems like a nice person.