Regan Smith exclusive: On leaving Stanford, being coached by Bob Bowman and her whole new perspective on swimming
The three-time Olympic medallist said she has "true happiness" in the pool for the first time in years. She's set to contend in three closely-watched races at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka.
Swimming
Is it possible that Regan Smith's happiness could be a scary thought for the rest of the swimming world?
The three-time Olympic medallist and former world-record holder in the 100m and 200m backstroke, Smith told Olympics.com recently that her shining results in the pool this season are thanks to a singular reason: “I would just say that I'm happy,” she explained. “I think that's the biggest thing.”
After just one collegiate season at Stanford, Smith changed course, turning pro and moving to Tempe, Arizona, to train with renowned coach Bob Bowman, who famously helped Michael Phelps to his historic Olympic successes.
Smith said she’s “never worked this hard” in her life. And she’s loving it.
“With swimming, I just haven't felt true happiness like I have these past nine months since... pre-Covid,” Smith, now 21, said in an exclusive interview. “I just love showing up to practice every day. I love the group that I'm in. I love competing more than I have in so long.”
The Minnesota native is set to compete in three individual events at this month’s World Aquatics Championships: The aforementioned 100m and 200m backstroke, as well as the 200m butterfly.
All three of those races are set to be highly anticipated races at Worlds in Fukuoka, Japan, and Smith is excited to be back on the global stage, with less than one year to go to the Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024.
Regan Smith: ‘It’s a fresh start for me’
After winning bronze in the 100m backstroke and silver in the 200m butterfly at Tokyo 2020 in 2021 (as well as a relay silver), Smith set out on a path taken by countless top American swimmers: She signed to swim for a college program while she continued her pursuit of international success, too.
But in her case, it didn’t click. At all.
“It just wasn’t the right fit for me,” Smith said, having swam for Stanford in 2021-22. “[Stanford] had been my dream for a really long time and then, showing up there, the dream just wasn't what the reality was for me. And that's fine. I'm glad that I figured that out and [found] what’s best for me.”
The move to Tempe came next, where Smith has remained since September of 2022, living on her own for the first time and also facing challenges of adulting, including meal-planning, cooking and doing her own laundry.
“It’s like a great fresh start for me,” Smith said. “I’ve just felt this new wave of motivation for swimming and I felt like I loved the sport again. ... I have no regrets at all about my change. I'm really loving life right now.”
Working with Bob Bowman, former coach of Michael Phelps
The pull in large part to Tempe was to work with Bowman, whose camp includes Chase Kalisz and Hali Flickinger, Smith’s Tokyo teammates and fellow Olympic medallists.
For Regan, the buy-in was immediate.
“I think just day-to-day the things that I really love and respect about Bob is that like he doesn't bull---- and cut corners, you know, he's just very like, ‘Let's get to work, let's get our work done and let's get out of here,’” reflected Smith. “He's very efficient. He's very, he's very positive too, which I really appreciate and respect about him.”
She added: “I'm a relatively sensitive person and so I respond well to positive words and words of encouragement. I don't respond as well to tough love. And I know that Bob... Bob can be a tough guy, for sure, but I think he knows how to handle each swimmer individually and cater to their needs. So I really appreciate and respect that about him.”
This season the positive training environment has been apparent in Smith’s results: She’s set three new personal bests, while coming close to her then-world record times in both the 100m and 200m backstroke.
“I feel like I’ve learned so much from Bob every day,” Smith said. “He's hard on us and he gives us hard sets, but it makes us so much better and it's a lot easier to do really difficult sets when you're with a really talented group of people.”
Smith admires the little things about the way Bowman approaches the sport, too, including those individualised workouts, as well as motivational quotes and his presence on social media, which she said she uses as a learning tool, too.
“I think we've clicked really well,” Smith said. “I really didn't know him at all before this year. So it's been great, getting to know him and see how he ticks.”
Regan Smith: Going head-to-head with Kaylee McKeown – and others
Fukuoka will feature a plethora of swimming showdowns in what is the final major long-course international meet ahead of Paris 2024 a year from now.
That includes Smith racing against Australia’s Kaylee McKeown in the 100m and 200m backstroke, the athlete that not only bumped Smith’s world record in each of those respective races but also captured Olympic gold in both, as well.
It marks the first time since 2019 Worlds that Smith with swim the 200m back: "The 200 back is like my baby... it's my favourite event," said Smith. "I have a lot of history with it and so I've missed it."
Kylie Masse, the Canadian, is set to feature as well. She won silver behind McKeown in Tokyo in the 100m and 200m, too. At Worlds last year, it was Smith who claimed gold in the 100m back (McKeown didn’t swim the event), while the Australian won the 200m that didn’t include the American. (Smith had finished third at U.S. trials, missing the Worlds team in that discipline.)
But Smith is clear about one thing: Her chief rival is herself. Mentally, she said, she has to see it that way.
“I completely understand that... there's always gonna be that like, you know, rivalries that people will create,” she explained. “But I try my best to really just focus on myself because I can get in my head pretty easily if I'm really focused on, like, ‘Oh, what's this person doing at this meet or what's going on over here?’
“I feel like my biggest competitor is myself and I'm just trying to beat my own best times and beat my own best race and execute things as well as I can. So I really do try to focus more on myself and less on other people... [those] external factors that I can't control.”
And it's not just the backstrokes that the swimming world is amped arout: Rising Canadian star Summer McIntosh will feature in the 200m butterfly as the reigning world champion in an event that Smith finished fourth in a year ago.
But Smith has the fastest time this season, prompting swimming news site SwimSwam to call the head-to-head match-up an 'epic battle'.
A training journal and new POV
“I just want to enjoy it.”
Part of this phase of her career has been a lot of reflection around her mental approach to the sport, including the perspective that – while she’s working as hard as ever and solely focused on performing well – Smith is aware that swimming is just that: A sport.
“It should be fun... I’m just thankful I’m doing a sport, and I love it so much,” she explained. “I used to put this terrible pressure on myself. And so that [perspective] has helped me a lot, just looking at a hard competition in the face and being like, ‘This isn't that serious. This is fun. All I need to do is try.’”
But athletes at every level need that reminder, and one way Smith has tried to hold herself accountable is with a training journal, where she records her daily efforts and then – at the bottom of the page – always lists one thing she’s proud of.
“Even if it's as small as, like I completed the practice, you know, like I didn't get out [of the pool], I did it no matter how hard it was, like I stayed in it,” she said with a smile.
“And then my goal [at competitions] is to go through my journal and see all the hard work that I've done and all the positive, great things that I accomplished during all those practices,” she said. “Just as kind of a final reassurance that I've done a lot of great things. I'm ready, I'm prepared... and there's nothing stopping me from having a really great meet.”