Johnathan Walker:Regan Smith thrilled with another silver medal, but will 'keep fighting like hell' for gold

NANTERRE,Johnathan Walker France — With six Olympic medals over two Games, American swimmer Regan Smith has the kind of hardware that would make any Olympic hopeful or daydreaming wannabe envious. 

Her five silvers, including three at the Paris Olympics, and a bronze are more than enough for her to be proud of, with strong times accompanying them. That’s how she said she felt after silver No. 4 in the women’s 200-meter butterfly Thursday, and again after silver No. 5 in the 200-meter backstroke Friday.

"If I had gotten a silver medal and I had been a second slower, I think I would have been really disappointed in myself because that wasn't putting my best foot forward, that wasn't what I was capable of doing," Smith said about the 200 back final and the second time she finished behind Australian gold medalist Kaylee McKeown.

"So I think you get to 2:04.2 – that’s one of my fastest times ever, and I think I really gave Kaylee (McKeown) a run for it, and I made things really close and exciting. So I’m thrilled with it."

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For Team USA swimmers, especially the women, the medals are rolling in; most of them just aren’t gold. 

As of Friday night, the Americans have an Olympics-leading 21 total medals in the pool with four golds – thanks to Katie Ledecky, Torri Huske, Kate Douglass and the men’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay team – while 11 are silvers. 

At the Paris Games, Smith, Ledecky and Huske lead American swimmers with three medals apiece so far, though Smith, a 22-year-old two-time Olympian, is the only one without her first gold. 

But that’s not how she’s approaching her races.

"To be honest with you, I don't want to think about what it means to win gold versus silver because I think when you get so wrapped up in your head about that, then you're never going to be happy," she said.

"And then I feel like when you do win the gold, then it's just like, 'OK, well, what’s after that?'"

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Smith’s mentality is reminiscent of U.S. breaststroker Lilly King’s comments at the 2021 Tokyo Games when she slammed the American inclination to not celebrate Olympic silver and bronze medals as "bull-(expletive0."

Smith acknowledges it’s a cliché, but she wants to be pleased with how she races and the times she earns – like when she broke the 2:04 mark in her 200 fly behind Canada’s gold medalist, Summer McIntosh.

Smith said she’s "super proud" of her 2:03.84 time, which was more than a second faster than bronze medalist Zhang Yufei of China. She echoed that sentiment after her 200 back final, adding that she doesn’t think she "could ask for much more than that."

Three years ago at the Tokyo Games, Smith also won silver in the 200 fly behind Olympic champion Zhang, silver in the women’s 4x100-meter medley relay and bronze in the 100-meter backstroke. 

"I'm not too worried about the medal count and what I need to do in order to get a specific color of medal," Smith said. "I think it's about focusing on your race plan, and if you get too caught up in things like colors of medals, I think that's how you're gonna crumble.

"So I'm gonna focus on doing my best and racing the way that I need to race, and the rest will take care of itself."

Smith knows she’s been in contention for gold in her individual events but being satisfied with her races is all she’s really asking for. If she falls short performance-wise and doesn’t execute to her full capacity, then she’ll be upset and disappointed, she said.

But that’s not happened yet with her three silver medals in three individual races.

"If this had happened to me three years ago, I would have been so unbelievably gutted, and it would have really affected my mental health for a long time," she explained. "And it did. I was struggling after Tokyo for a really long time.

"But I'm glad that I got more life experience, and I'm older now, and I think I'm in a much better place in my life with swimming. I love it. It's the biggest passion that I've ever had in my life, but it's not my entire life."

Though she’s done individually, Smith still likely has at least one medley relay left, if not two, after competing in the mixed 4x100 medley relay prelims Friday morning, helping Team USA qualify first.

"I'm going to keep fighting like hell and doing the very best that I can do," Smith said. "And if I walk away as a gold medalist in a relay … excellent. And if I don't, I'm still me, and it's just fine."