Somehow, the moment for which Regan Smith has been waiting all her life, and particularly this last year, snuck up on her. The U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials have finally arrived for the Lakeville 19-year-old.
“I’ve been thinking of it constantly, ever since they announced the postponement (last year). I’d been thinking about it all the time, but also, every time I’d think about it, I’d think, ‘Oh, you still have so much time,’ ” Smith said last week. “I’d say that to myself over this past entire year, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I don’t have so much time.’ ”
The time for which Smith has been waiting for is now here. And she is excited. That’s the prevailing emotion in the buildup to some of the biggest swims of Smith’s career to date.
Yes, there is so much pressure to perform well to qualify for the Olympic team, and make a statement while doing so. So many expectations have been hoisted upon the teenager since she set three world records at the 2019 World Championships in South Korea: the 100-meter backstroke, 200-meter backstroke and as part of the USA’s 4 x 100-meter medley relay.
That’s part of what makes Smith’s second U.S. Olympic Trials so different than her first trip in 2016. Though it was five years ago, Smith remembers that meet “like it was yesterday.” She was so green back then, a relative newbie to the major meet stage.
“I was just so star struck, and I felt like I didn’t belong and I had no clue what was happening most of the time,” she said. “I was just kind of there to swim and have fun and not really think about anything, because I wasn’t going to make the team or anything.”
How things change.
Smith enters this week’s meet, which starts Sunday in Omaha, Neb., as one of the country’s bright swimming stars. With that spotlight traditionally comes expectation and pressure. Yet Smith pushes the nerves and pressure to the side in favor of excitement.
“If I’m not excited about it, then why am I doing it? Because I joined the sport originally, when I was 7 years old, because I liked it and I wanted to have fun with it,” Smith said. “I know it’s very easy to, as you get older, your motive for doing the sport changes, but I really just have to try to go back to my roots and think, ‘I’m doing this because I like it, and because it’s fun,’ not because it needs to be some big, scary, stressful, anxiety-inducing thing.
“It should just be fun, so that’s really how I want to approach every meet, because if I start thinking about it in a different way or from a different perspective, then I think I’ll crumble, if I’m being honest with you. So, I try to be excited and think, ‘This is fun. This is a great privilege and a great opportunity.’”
Ever since Smith took up swimming, she’s done nothing but improve. It was commonplace, almost routine, for her to show up at an event and set a new personal best. Why wouldn’t it work that way? Smith was working hard in training. You train hard, you get faster and your times improve — like clockwork. It was only once Smith set those world records two years ago that it clicked with her that trend may not continue.
“I’m kind of past the point of getting a new best time every time I swim,” she acknowledged. “So, that was really hard to digest at first, because it was really fun to go to swim meets and have new best times every swim.”
No one was setting records, anyway, over the past year-plus. COVID-19 not only delayed the Olympics by a year, but also threw a wrench into training. Pool time wasn’t easy to come by. Routines were disrupted. Smith described her US Open Championships meet in November as “kind of rocky.” She didn’t perform well. She felt tired. She had another meet in January, and it was OK, but not great.
“I remember being frustrated, because it was like, ‘I’m working so hard, and my hard work isn’t paying off. It’s not showing through,’ ” Smith said. “I was feeling a little discouraged.”
But the strong swims have returned this spring. A successful meet in March, backed by another prime performance in May, have restored Smith’s confidence.
“OK, trust the process,” she thought to herself. “You’re (doing) the work in practice, and it might not show through in every competition, but it’ll show through when it matters.”
Like this week?
Smith has taken a couple trips to Florida this year, where she was able to train and soak up some sun. She’s fully vaccinated and has felt life slowly ease back toward normality, just as she’s again swimming some of her better times.
With the COVID-19 pandemic came a long hiatus in the ramp up to the Olympics. For a few months, the conversation hushed. Smith has since felt the hype rebuilding, particularly around her.
“It’s hard sometimes, because it’s very easy to think about what people are comparing you to and what people are expecting of you,” she said. “Going into this meet, I know that people are expecting certain things of me, and I just have to stop and realize, ‘I can’t be worried about what other people are wanting me to do or are expecting me to do,’ because if I dwell on that, I’m just going to implode, honestly. I just can’t afford to think like that.
“I’m really just trying to forget that, and just worry about myself and worry about what I want myself to do and what I know I can do and just not worry about anyone else’s expectations on me.”
Part of that process included taking a step back from social media. Smith is channeling out the noise, which has eased her nerves and stress levels. She described this week as a business trip: agenda, purpose, plan in place. She’s focused on executing her plan, from her starts to her turns to her strokes, and swimming to the best of her abilities.
“After that, it’s just out of my hands. I can’t control what other people are doing,” Smith said. “I think if the details are there and I’m executing well, then I think things will take care of themselves, hopefully, and I’ll be pretty proud of myself.”
The Link LonkJune 11, 2021 at 11:38PM
https://www.twincities.com/2021/06/11/forget-the-expectations-lakevilles-regan-smith-enters-u-s-olympic-trials-simply-excited-for-her-swims/
Forget the expectations, Lakeville’s Regan Smith enters U.S. Olympic Trials excited to swim - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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