This world record took Regan Smith five years to achieve.
What an up-and-down ride it has been.
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Smith established a world record in the women’s 100-meter backstroke at the US swimming trials on Tuesday night, rebounding from a close but no Olympic call in her first race.
The Minnesota swimmer touched in 57.13 seconds, comfortably topping Australia’s Kaylee McKeown’s time of 57.33 from a year ago.
Smith, 22, believes she can better her record in Paris.
“I think 56 is a possibility for sure; whether it’s me or whether it’s one of my competitors, who knows?” she told the crowd. “That was a wonderful race, but it wasn’t flawless. So I know there are things I can clean up and do better, and I intend to work on them.”
When she first set a world record in the 100 at the 2019 World Championships, Smith was only 17 years old. However, she struggled to deal with her unexpected, newfound prominence, losing dominance in the event to McKeown.
“A long time is coming,” Smith added. “It’s about time.”
Smith’s brilliance was undeniable, but a lack of confidence could be fatal at times.
She’s been seeing a sports psychologist since October, and it’s helped her mental health. Her coach, Bob Bowman, best known for his work with 23-time gold winner Michael Phelps, handled the physical aspect with a strenuous training schedule.
“This is incredibly rewarding,” Smith remarked. “As a teenager, I hadn’t done much. There was no strain on me. I was always the youngest. Nobody expected much from me. I could approach it fearlessly.”
It was difficult for her to regain her position after experiencing success. She made the U.S. Olympic squad for the Tokyo Games but finished third in the backstroke, while McKeown won gold.
“I’ve always had it physically, but I didn’t have it mentally,” Smith explained, pointing to her head. “I just didn’t have it up here.”
After losing out on a spot on the U.S. squad in the 100 butterfly, Smith showed her growing confidence by coming in third behind Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske.
Smith, flipping to her back, achieved the trials’ second world record, trailing Walsh’s mark in the 100 fly semifinals.
Katharine Berkoff won the second projected Olympic spot for the United States with a time of 57.91.
In the night’s other final, Bobby Finke won the 800 freestyle gold medal in Tokyo with a timing of 7 minutes, 44.22 seconds.
Finke had to work hard to get to the wall ahead of Indiana sensation Luke Whitlock, 18, who ran a national age-group record of 7:45.19 and is expected to finish second in the United States at the Olympics.
No one else came within 4 seconds of the top two.
“I find I need pressure to do well, at least in my eyes,” Finke told me. “So, I believe that the more pressure I feel, the more likely I am to perform well. We’re pleased with the time we had.”
Whitlock splashed the water loudly after swimming almost stroke-for-stroke with the reigning Olympic champion, who won the 800 and 1,500 freestyles in Tokyo.
He is projected to become the youngest male swimmer to make the US team since Michael Phelps, who qualified for his first Olympics in Sydney in 2000 at the age of 15.
“It’s really just over the last few months, especially the last two months; my training has really picked up, and now, just talking to my coach, we just had a really good plan,” says Whitlock. “We kind of got everything planned out about a month and a half before this, and I was just really confident with the work I’ve been putting in, so I knew I could execute it.”
Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel, two of America’s brightest swimming stars, made impressive debuts at the trials, but they still need to improve to return to the Olympics.
Dressel was the third-fastest qualifier in the men’s 100 freestyle prelims and semifinals, trailing only Jack Alexy and Chris Guiliano. To be eligible to defend his Olympic title in that event, the Florida native must defeat at least one of them in the final on Wednesday night.
Manuel was the quickest qualifier in the women’s 100 free prelims, finishing second behind Torri Huske in the semifinals.
Dressel and Manuel are both returning after lengthy layoffs that raised doubts about their ability to qualify for Paris.
Dressel, who won five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, inexplicably walked away during the 2022 world championships, later revealing that he needed a prolonged break to reignite his love for the sport.
Before the past Olympics, Manuel, the first black female swimmer to win an individual gold medal, received a diagnosis of overtraining syndrome. She narrowly qualified for the U.S. team before ceasing all physical exercise under a doctor’s supervision to allow her body to heal.
