In 2019, Smith seemed poised to be unstoppable at the Olympics in 2020, but, of course, things didn't quite work out as planned. After months away from training due to COVID-19 restrictions, Smith revealed, training didn't exactly start out smoothly.
"By the time August rolled around, training was really rough because we weren't doing as much as we had been and I wasn't going as fast as I had normally been going in practice," Smith told Swimming World. "Backstroke, in particular, felt really rough. I remember it got to the point where I would avoid backstroke and do butterfly instead, just because backstroke felt so funky. Nobody really wants to do fly in practice."
She had a breakthrough by the end of 2020, but she still had to work to stay both physically and mentally prepared. "It's weird," Smith explained to Swimming World prior to the Olympic trials. "If this were a year ago, I'd be like, 'Sick. I just did those times a year ago. I'm ready to do them again.' And now, I'm two years removed. We'll see what happens." Smith did, of course, ultimately qualify for the Olympics — but not in the event that had been her signature, the 200m backstroke.
