Regan Smith shares her path to resilience after struggling under pressure

NINA MOINI: You're listening to Minnesota Now. I'm Nina Moini, filling in for Cathy Wurzer. Olympic gold medalist. Regan Smith is back home in Minnesota after an amazing run at the summer Olympic games in Paris. The 22-year-old Lakeville native won two gold medals, three silvers, and set a world record in the 100-meter backstroke. And she joins me now. Regan, thank you for being here and making time for us. We really appreciate it.

REGAN SMITH: Of course. Hi, Nina. Thanks so much for having me.

NINA MOINI: So, I mean, congratulations. What an amazing summer games you've had. And you've had a couple of weeks now to decompress and maybe reflect a little bit. What are you taking away from this year's Olympics experience?

REGAN SMITH: I think I really tried to soak in the experience because this was my second Olympic games, but my first Olympic games that was normal, so to say. My first games was in Tokyo, and that was during the pandemic. So everything was completely different from what a normal Olympic games should have been.

I didn't get to share special moments after my races with my family. There was no one in the stadium who got to watch us compete. We had to do social distancing and testing every day. And so it just wasn't what the Olympics were all about in Tokyo.

And so getting to now have my first, quote-unquote, "normal" experience in Paris was very, very special. And so I just took full advantage of the situation and had so much fun and got to enjoy a lot of time with my family. And I think that was the most fun for me, was just getting to share those moments with my family instead of them being halfway across the world watching me from their couch and TV.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. I'm sure that makes all the difference. Was there anything really memorable or fun that you got to do with your family? How much are they around? Is it that you just know they're in the stands? Or is there anything you all got to do together that sticks out?

REGAN SMITH: I'd say the things that stick out the most to me were there's medal ceremonies, of course, after each event that I swam. And I was able to find my mom and dad and hug them after each of my races during each of the medal ceremonies. And that was so, so special and important to me, getting to hug them on national and international television and in front of 15,000 people. Getting to share that moment together was really, really cool.

Didn't get to spend a ton of time with them outside of the pool or those moments because we're busy, and we have to be in the athlete village, which they're not allowed in. So I really try to take advantage of those moments with them during the medal ceremony.

NINA MOINI: That's beautiful. Well, and I hope you're getting to spend some time with them, now that you're home. I understand you haven't been back home to Lakeville in a while. And I'm from the south metro, too. I grew up in Apple Valley, right next door. What's it like to be back?

REGAN SMITH: Yeah, it's really nice. I've been home a decent amount. I saw a Star Tribune article said that I hadn't been home since before COVID, which I'm going to debunk that. That's not true. So I'm not sure where they got that from.

NINA MOINI: We got a live fact check. OK. [LAUGHS]

REGAN SMITH: Yeah, exactly. So, yes, I haven't been home for, gosh, about three months. So it really hasn't been very long at all. But regardless, I love coming home every single time I get the opportunity to and spending time with my parents and my pets, of course. Because it's hard enough being away from your parents. But at least, there's Facetime and texting these days.

But when you leave your pets, they have no idea where you've gone. And it's hard to keep in touch with them, obviously, because they don't really understand where you went. So I think that's been the most fun for me, spending time with my cat and my dogs. I've just been really trying to soak that all in.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, those pets will give you a guilt trip after an hour. They don't know.

REGAN SMITH: Exactly. They don't make you feel bad at all, or they love if you feel bad.

NINA MOINI: So, you mentioned that you have been able to spend time with family. But we know that you have such an amazing passion and career that takes up a lot of your time. And in recent years, especially since the Tokyo games, we're hearing about more athletes coming forward about struggles that they've had mentally, maybe during or following the Olympic games. And for you, that seemed to come after Tokyo, really.

I mean, you were 17 years old setting world records. What was that pressure like at the time? And how do you reflect back on it, now that you've had some years of growth?

REGAN SMITH: Yeah, the pressure was really terrible, and I had no idea how to deal with it, to be blunt. And of course, now when I'm much older, I can look back and be like, well, it's unfortunate to feel all this pressure in a sport. And I know that's very typical. But I was feeling pressure on things that ultimately, in the grand scheme of life, they just don't matter that much.

No matter if I competed well or badly that day, I'd still go home, and my life would be the exact same. I'd still had my parents, my pets, my friends, all my family members. My life was exactly the same. Nothing was at stake, I guess, except for my ego, I suppose, or a piece of hardware to come home to.

But I had convinced myself that this was like a life or death situation every time that I stepped behind the blocks, just because you can get into that fight or flight mode before competition, and things can seem much more serious than they actually are. And I couldn't differentiate that in my body and in my nervous system. And so I think I really just took things way too seriously. I made things way too emotional when they should have just been very logical.

And so I did a lot of internal work in these past three years between Tokyo and the Paris games, where I just started to realize like, hey, swimming is important to me, but it's just something I do. It's not who I am. It's not my entire life. If I have a bad race or a great race either way, that's OK, and there's not much at stake regardless. And everyone around me is still going to love me and treat me the exact same.

And I think that allowed me to compete with much more freedom and not as much fear. And I was able to really lean into the fun side of sport instead of really feeling like I was going to collapse underneath all of the pressure. Because there just doesn't have to be pressure.

Of course, people are going to have expectations on you, and you're going to set expectations for yourself. But they don't have to be scary. I think it's just because people are excited to see the things that you're capable of achieving. And so I was trying to lean into that, the positives, instead of the negatives.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And I think you're making a great point about when you're so deep in the moment, it's hard to see outside of it. I wonder when you are able to step back and be outside of it or just balance your time in a way? If you want to share it, what are some of the ways that you take care of Regan as a whole person and individual, so that you're able to have that larger perspective?

REGAN SMITH: Oh, absolutely. I'd say I spend lots of time with my friends when I'm across the country and not with my parents. When I'm training in Arizona, I'm with them all the time, always making sure that my brain is stimulated in some way positively, just getting those important hours in with the people that I care about most.

And I also am always in contact with my parents. I'm so close with my family. And so we'll Facetime a lot. We'll be texting literally 24/7 just because it's so important to me to maintain those close relationships with my parents and take advantage of being in the modern age, where we have literally, everyone at our fingertips, which where I recognize that before I was alive, we didn't have that at all. You had to make a phone call maybe, or write a letter or something.

NINA MOINI: Oh, not a letter!

REGAN SMITH: --advantage of that, too.

NINA MOINI: Right? Exactly. [LAUGHS]

REGAN SMITH: Way back when, right? Yeah. And yeah, just things like that and just keeping my mind occupied in a positive way. I'm taking classes at Arizona State, as well, online. So keeping my mind stimulated that way has been really fun, too; so just all of those things to keep me in a well-balanced lifestyle so I'm more than just a swimmer.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. And that's a practice that you have to work on for years and years all the time, so good for you. I'm curious how it was when you recently visited your Alma mater, Lakeville North High School. Did you give some of this kind of knowledge and advice to the students? Or what was that experience like?

REGAN SMITH: Yeah, it was so much fun. I spoke a lot about the same things that I'm speaking to you about now, just because I think they're some of the most important lessons that I've learned in my entire life. And I feel very grateful that I'm now able to share it with some people. And I hope that it brings them comfort or it can enlighten them in some way or maybe see things from a different perspective that they hadn't previously considered.

Because this stuff, I'm talking about swimming and how it relates to my life. But this can be applicable to anyone's life and what they're going through. If it's a career or with their family or literally anything, I think there's a way to fit this into your personal life. And I think that's special to me, too.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. So I know that we're talking about taking things a little bit maybe more slowly now. I'm wondering, What's next for you? Is Los Angeles 2028 on your mind? Or what are you looking forward to?

REGAN SMITH: Yeah, LA is definitely a goal of mine. It's something that I want to get to. But I recognize that it's four years away. And so the last thing I want to do right now, literally fresh off the boat from Paris, is be like, all right, it's time to start training for LA. Because I think that is the perfect recipe for burnout.

And so while I can recognize that, yes, that is a goal of mine, and that's what I'm ultimately going to be working towards over these next four years, I know that part of getting to LA is really sitting in the success that I've had from Paris and not moving on from it too quickly, just being proud of what I've accomplished and letting my body sit in this for a couple of months even.

And I think I'm going to start getting back into the full swing of things, full training mode, in 2025. So I'll still be in the water here and there, and I'll be lifting my weights, as I do. And I'll even be doing some competitions this fall, but nothing super serious.

If I don't have some great times this fall in the pool, that's no sweat off my back. I know it's part of the process. And I'm really just focusing on having fun and not worrying about getting up at 6:00 AM to go swim every morning, and just really trying to let myself let loose and have more of a balance than I've ever had before, which I think is much needed for longevity in sports at any level.

NINA MOINI: I'm really happy for you, Regan. All of that sounds wonderful. Take all the time to enjoy that you want. And thank you so much for stopping by Minnesota Now.

REGAN SMITH: Oh, of course. Thank you so much for having me, Nina. This has been a great conversation.

NINA MOINI: Me, too. That's Lakeville native and Olympian Regan Smith.