Olympic medalist Regan Smith credits sports psychologist with taking her swimming to the ‘next level’

Regan Smith will compete in her second Summer Olympics subsequent month with a brand new mindset, one that may hopefully assist the 22-year-old American swimmer earn her first Olympic gold medal. 

Smith’s journey to Paris noticed her medal in three particular person occasions at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis final month. She broke the world document in the ladies’s 100-meter backstroke, reclaiming the title she beforehand had in 2019 when she broke the document at simply 17.

After the occasion, Smith mentioned it was a “long time coming.” For the previous a number of years, the Olympic medalist had seemingly struggled with the psychological aspect of her sport, which held her again from seeing the identical success she as soon as did 5 years in the past. 

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But one thing modified in Smith’s strategy, and she or he’ll be going for gold in the ladies’s 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke and the 200-meter butterfly.

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Smith opened up about her psychological well being journey. 

“I, for a long time, I drank the Kool-Aid of the stigma around mental health. I didn’t want to have a sports psychologist. I didn’t want to talk about it. I thought you were weak, or I thought I was weak. And so the feelings that I had, I tried to shove inside and ignore them, and it festered and exploded. And I had a really hard couple of years as an athlete.” 

But sooner or later, that modified.

“I kind of faced the music, looked in the mirror and was like, ‘You’re not weak for accepting help. Why don’t you talk to someone and see where it goes?'”

Regan Smith is seen after the ladies’s 100-meter backstroke semifinal at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on June 17, 2024. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

And so Smith started the seek for a sports psychologist who she felt was the proper match. And in October, she met Emily Klueh. 

“She has taken my swimming completely to the next level,” Smith mentioned.

OLYMPIC MEDALIST REGAN SMITH WEARS USA SWIM CAP WITH PRIDE AHEAD OF PARIS: ‘I’M SO PROUD TO BE AMERICAN’

Klueh swam collegiately at Michigan and swam for the nationwide group for 10 years. In 2023, she joined USA Swimming as supervisor of psychological well being and emotional wellness. Smith praised Klueh’s factual and logical strategy to the sport, which she credits with turning round her efficiency in the pool.

“One thing that she always says to me, it’s kind of her mantra with me, she’s just like, ‘Look at the facts of the situation.’ And that was so eye-opening to me because, as an athlete, as a swimmer, I feel like I can look through things with a very emotional lens. I think that’s where nerves come from, that’s where anxiety comes from, and that’s ultimately what leads us to choking, to be blunt, and to not perform at the level you’re capable of performing at.”

“She just did such an excellent job at dumbing everything down for me, which sounds silly, but it’s a lot easier to swim fast and put up performances that you’re proud of when things are simplified. And I couldn’t figure out how to do that until she came into my life,” she continued. “And so I’m so incredibly grateful, and I think I’m able to look at swimming with excitement now instead of anxiety. And I think excitement and anxiety kind of go hand in hand, but it can be very difficult to separate the two. I never could until I started to work with her.”

Smith additionally spoke about one other issue that improved her psychological recreation.

Regan Smith reacts after setting the world document in the ladies’s 100-meter backstroke closing throughout the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on June 18, 2024. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

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Speaking to Fox News Digital on behalf of pet vitamin model Nulo, Smith mentioned she adopted a cat named Roo from an animal shelter in Arizona throughout a troublesome time in her coaching this yr. She had fallen unwell simply months earlier than from the Olympic trials and was compelled to cease coaching.

“I was so down in the dumps. I was like, ‘This is an Olympic year, and here I am sitting on the couch, exhausted when I try to go get groceries. Like, how am I supposed to go to the Olympics this summer? This is hopeless. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.’” 

That’s when her household and sports psychologist steered that an emotional help animal may be a very good resolution. 

“She is the absolute sweetest thing, and she got me out of that rough patch, and she was such an incredible support system. And so when I was still kind of on the come-up recovering from my sickness, and I would come home from practice just in tears because I just wanted to be back [at] the level that I was at training-wise, she would greet me at the door.”

Nulo has partnered with eight athletes, together with fellow Olympians Simone Biles and Caeleb Dressel, as part of the Fuel Incredible marketing campaign geared toward highlighting the connection between athletes and their pets on the journey to the high.

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