U.S. swimmer Regan Smith is an Olympic medalist, a world document holder, a world champion and even an adoring cat proprietor. However the 22-year-old former Stanford swimmer may greatest describe herself as a proud American.
Smith certified for the 2024 Summer time Olympics in Paris after her dominating efficiency within the girls’s 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke and the 200-meter fly on the latest U.S. Olympic Swimming Crew Trials in Indianapolis. She set the world document within the 100-meter.
She described it as a “gratifying” expertise, one which has once more given her the prospect to put on a swim cap with the American flag alongside her title.
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Forward of her second look within the Summer time Olympics, Smith advised Fox Information Digital that she first received the chance to signify the U.S. when she was 15.
“It virtually moved me to tears,” she stated.
“I had such a robust sense of pleasure, and I used to be getting up behind the blocks, and I wasn’t simply swimming for me, I used to be swimming for your complete nation behind me, who had my again and who needed me to succeed.”
In Smith’s retelling of this second, she didn’t make point out of medals or information, simply the pleasure she felt.
“It was simply unbelievable to swim for one thing that was a lot larger than your self. And I feel that helped take a number of the stress off of me as properly, as a result of I used to be like, ‘I simply need to do that to make my nation proud.’ It is simply so simple as that.”
Smith took her abilities to the Olympics for the primary time on the 2020 Summer time Video games in Tokyo. She gained silver within the 200-meter butterfly and bronze within the 100-meter backstroke. She’ll have the prospect to earn her first gold medal when she competes in three particular person occasions subsequent month in Paris.
However for Smith, doing so would imply a lot greater than private achievement.
“I’m such a patriotic lady. I really like America a lot. I’m such an American lady to my core, critically,” she advised Fox Information digital with a smile.
“It by no means will get outdated, actually. Every summer season after I’ve gotten to place the American flag cap on my head and signify it, I’m so unbelievably proud. And each time I will stand on high of a podium and put my hand on my coronary heart and listen to the nationwide anthem play over your complete aquatic middle, it is very particular. It by no means will get outdated. I might say it type of positive aspects significance and worth every time that it occurs for me. And so this summer season goes to be no totally different. I am simply going to be so unbelievably excited to place that cap on and go abroad and signify the most effective nation within the historical past of the world, I might say. And it is simply – it is fantastic. It is actually, actually fantastic. And I am so proud to be American each time that I compete for my nation.”
Chatting with Fox Information Digital on behalf of her partnership with pet diet model Nulo, Smith spoke about her help system again residence, which incorporates her adopted cat, Roo.
Smith adopted Roo from an animal shelter in Arizona throughout a troublesome time this yr. She had fallen unwell simply months earlier than the Olympic trials and was compelled to cease coaching. Her household and sports activities psychologist prompt that an emotional help animal may be resolution.
“She is absolutely the sweetest factor, and she or he received me out of that tough patch, and she or he was such an unbelievable help system. And so after I was nonetheless type of on the come-up recovering from my illness, and I might come residence from apply simply in tears as a result of I simply needed to be again [to] the extent that I used to be at training-wise, she would greet me on the door.”
Nulo has partnered with eight athletes, together with fellow Olympians Simone Biles and Caeleb Dressel, as part of the Gas Unimaginable marketing campaign geared toward highlighting the connection between athletes and their pets on their journey to the highest.
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