How Regan Smith Learned to Focus on Winning in Ways She Could Control | SwimSwam

By Coleman Hodges on SwimSwam

In the time between her first and second Olympics, Regan Smith went through a lot of change. The COVID-19 pandemic had caused her to take a gap year between high school and college, so after the Tokyo Olympics she went from her home in Minnesota to Palo Alto to start school at Stanford. After a year on the Farm, Smith ended up moving to Arizona to pursue a professional career in swimming and train with Bob Bowman.

During all of this time, Smith had been constantly chasing perfect swims that netted wins. Any time she didn’t get that, she was beating herself up about it. While training with Bowman, she was able to develop a mindset that focused on smaller victories and variables that she could control, like her effort and attitude rather than placement and time.

Smith carried this mindset into the Paris Olympics, where she won 5 medals, 2 gold and 3 silver, and was able to come away from the experience with her head held high.

Listen to SwimSwam’s full podcast with Regan Smith here.

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