Now an 8x Olympic medalist, Regan Smith joined Coleman Hodges on the SwimSwam podcast this week. In the almost hour-and-a-half-long interview, Smith touched on a variety of topics, including her mindset shift to get ready for the Paris Olympics, and swimming the 100 fly at U.S. Olympic Trials.
Smith also opened up about her training plans for the next couple of months. Since Bob Bowman was appointed Director of Swimming at the University of Texas, there’s been plenty of movement from both pro and collegiate swimmers. Smith was one of the pro swimmers who followed Bowman to Austin but sparked some rumors when she shared an Instagram story from Tempe.
Smith shared on the SwimSwam podcast that she is currently in Tempe and her lease in Austin has started but she’s “in no rush to do anything.” She’s been enjoying living in the same apartment complex as friends while she finishes “[tying] up loose ends” in Tempe.
“I’m getting back into training very slowly because I enjoy swimming, I don’t like being away from it for too long, but I’m not going to be killing myself with anything,” Smith said, explaining that ASU head coach Herbie Behm has left the door open for her at ASU and she’s practiced with the ASU women’s team while in town.
As for her fall schedule, Smith said that she’s committed to the World Cup in the fall, which will be her first time on the circuit since she was a junior swimmer.
“I need to be in decent shape for that,” Smith said, “but again I’m not going to be killing myself trying to get ready to do something spectacular at World Cup. I’m just more excited to travel and stay busy and do my thing for a couple months—just enjoy the first year of the quad and not having to like, be tied down somewhere.”
She also said that she was thinking about attending Short Course Worlds at the end of the year, and that while she has not committed to anything, she thinks that short course meters could be her “sweet spot.”
Watch the full podcast on Youtube below, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Smith discusses her training and schedule for the rest of 2024 from 1:12.04 to 1:16.30.
I respect Regan Smith for her sportsmanship.
With all the great short course swimmers in the U. S., why don’t more of them swim international short course events?
Philosophy and geography, I gues.
You are great, Regan and such a talented swimmer! You have a really bright future ahead of you!