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Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin (l to r).
Smith tells aspiring swimmers and
Olympic athletes that they should never
make excuses for themselves. “There are so
many who could be right on the verge of
being great, but excuses are something that
will get in the way of achieving your goals,”
she advises. “If you make no excuses, then at
the end of the season you can take comfort in
knowing that you did absolutely everything
you could to prepare.”
The 2016 games were Smith’s first
appearance at the Olympics and, although
she was very nervous, her coach at the
University of Virginia helped her stay calm.
She says it was a tremendous honor to swim
on the women’s 4x200 meter freestyle relay.
Allison Schmitt swam the
first leg and Smith was
next, then Maya DiRado
swam the third leg and
Katie Ledecky finished the
race. They won gold with
a time of 7:43.03. Smith
says she was confident
they would finish in first
place as soon as Schmitt
completed the first leg.
In the women’s individual 400-meter
freestyle race, Smith won bronze, finishing
with a time of 4:01:92 behind Ledecky’s
world-record 3:56.36 and just after Jazmin
Carlin of Great Britain, whose time was
4:01.23. Ledecky ended up with a total of
four gold medals and one silver.
Smith notes that even though she expected
to win a medal, it was still an incredible
moment. “Nothing compares to touching the
wall and realizing that you did it,” she says.
Smith adds that her gold and bronze
medals represent different kinds of
Photo by Tim Binning/The Swim Pictures.
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accomplishments. She takes great pride in
her bronze from the 400-meter freestyle
because it was an individual event but the
relay medal is also special because it was a
team effort. “You can’t take full ownership for
the whole thing, but the relay wouldn’t be the
same without you on it,” Smith says. “I would
say that is the memory that I’m most fond of.”
She maintains that winning an Olympic
gold medal hasn’t really changed her life.
“I have trained and swum the same way
my whole life, so I just feel like I am the same
person,” Smith explains. “I love swimming,
but I think there are many other parts of me
that make me who I am. The support that
I have received is amazing, so it’s sort of an
“There are so many who could be
right on the verge of being great, but
excuses are something that will get
in the way of achieving your goals.”
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odd adjustment for me since I still feel like a
regular college student.”
Smith is a senior at the University of
Virginia and will graduate next year with
a degree in media studies. She plans to
postpone job hunting until after she finishes
training for the next Summer Olympics.
She is looking to compete in the individual
200-meter freestyle in addition to the 4x200
meter freestyle relay, individual 800-meter
freestyle event, and the individual 400-meter
freestyle race and hopes for