Last weekend 15-year-old rising star Regan Smith, the “Riptide Rocket”, blasted off into the long course season with an impressive showing at Speedo Sectionals in Indianapolis at the famous IUPUI Natatorium. Though Smith did not break any NAG records at this meet, the times she posted speak for themselves.
Smith, who turned 15 in February, broke two major barriers in her specialty events, the 100 and 200 backstrokes. In the 200, Smith swam a 2:09.79 in evening finals, obliterating her previous best time of 2:11.41 from the 2016 U.S. Open Championships for the second time in one day. With that swim, Smith established herself as the 10th-fastest woman in the world this season in the 200 back, and fastest American woman so far this year.
Saturday night Smith broke the one-minute barrier in the 100 back for the first time, clocking a 59.74 to become the fourth-fastest woman in the world in the event this year. Internationally, Smith only trails Emily Seebohm (Australia), Kylie Masse (Canada), and Fu Yuanhui (China).
In addition to her phenomenal backstroke swims, Smith narrowly missed breaking the one-minute barrier in the 100 fly, posting an impressive 1:00.21 to win the race Friday evening. Smith destroyed the 13-14 NAG records in the 100 back, 200 back, 100 fly, and 200 IM at the SCY Speedo Junior Championships (West) in December. Though missing the NAG records in the LCM versions of the same events in Indy, Smith’s 100 backstroke ranks as the 2nd-fastest-ever for 15-16 girls–only Missy Franklin has been faster within the age group, with a 59.18 from August of 2011 when Franklin was 16-years-old. In the 200 back, Smith ranks 7th-fastest-ever for 15-16 girls, where Missy Franklin again holds the NAG record.
The Phillips 66 National Championships and the FINA World Junior Championships will be held at IUPUI this June and August, respectively.
Impressive! Aside from whatever future improvements she makes, she could probably shave off a few tenths right now just by swimming straight. Easier said than done, of course, just ask Ryan Murphy who didn’t perfect it til last year… But here it looks like she did a diagonal and almost got under the lane line, the last 25.
Surely they will look at the film and practice not doing that so she can be 59 low- 58 high by June. 🙂
Ok missed that Atherton is like a year older.
minna Atherton is still ahead of her time side though. Aren’t the same age?
It Atherton is one year older?
This is probably done with 0 long course training. There are 2 indoor Long course pools in mn (that I am aware of) and both are 40+ min away.
Here’s a local article about Regan Smith from last December.
http://www.twincities.com/2016/12/23/lakeville-swimmer-regan-smith-the-riptide-rocket-has-olympic-dreams/
Thanks.
So she is 15 who didn’t push hard herself until she got 13. It sounds like a rapid improvement and desire to exercise correlated with the period of intensive body development.
This article ends with the following words of her coach:
“She is following a similar path (to Franklin),” Parratto said. “That doesn’t guarantee anything for the future, but it looks pretty good.”
He is hopeful but careful with his predictions and he knows a lot about swimming. On the other hand she mentally is ready for big step having already Olympic Trials in her resume. That means a lot.
I think we should wait until Nationals in June to be more accurate with… Read more »
Love the coach’s comments, very intelligent coach.
Very similar to Peaty – he has said he only started taking his sport seriously in 2012 (aged 17). Possibly after seeing his age-peer Craig Benson qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Smith looks equally special, too. I can see 58mid-low by the end of 2018.
Great kickouts, no wonder her SCY times are so incredible as well! Glad to see her translating her SC success to the long course pool. Definitely going to be a factor in 2020, if not earlier. Could see her sneak onto the Pan Pacs team in 2018 if she continues to improve.
To be a factor the 1.5 sec improvement is needed. How much is it? Sounds like a lot at 100. On the other hand Penny Oleksiak made similar break through just in one season and it was at 100 free not back. How tall is Regan? Very little information can be found about her online to get some idea what her progress is due to. The following site can be found useful to those who is trying to predict her future in three years.
https://www.collegeswimming.com/swimmer/290470/
1.5 seconds in 3 years for a young swimmer? Seems possible, at the least.
Well, I think that if it happens, it will happen rather sooner than later. If she doesn’t go under 59sec this or next season not much should be expected in 2020.
At 16 Missy Franklin was swam 59.18. At 17 she was 58.33. And that’s it.
Even as recently as about 1.5 yr ago she was using no underwater dolphin kicks at all. (Based on some video I saw of her taking down a couple of NAG records.) The fact that she was so fast without them was an indication that she could be strong LCM. This video shows that she now has very good kickouts, better than at trials last year if I remember rightly.
That is the least crowded sectional meet I have ever seen.
The opposite side of the pool was not open for spectators.
58 this summer. 57 in Tokyo
I’m joking everyone. But an amazing swim by Ms. Smith!! She continues to improve at a great rate!! She now has international experience as she did the few World Cup series. Can’t wait to see her do more!
I actually don’t think you are too far off. I truly believe we are looking at a potential world record holder here, and I don’t necessarily think it will take 3-1/2 years for her to achieve that.
I really could see it happening. She’s improving quickly and seems to have great coaching and support system.