United States swimmer Regan Smith has lifted the lid on the mental toll of her rivalry with Australia’s Kaylee McKeown.
After breaking the 200m backstroke world record in 2019, 23-year-old Smith said she believed that it would mark the start of an era of dominance in the discipline that she would lead.
But when McKweon went on to best her in both the 100m and 200m backstroke at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021 and then again at other individual races in high-profile events, including Paris 2024 and the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, the illusion was shattered, and for a time, so was she.
“I was not prepared mentally. I think I could have been prepared physically, and then I just completely fell off the horse for a couple of years there, just because I couldn’t handle that, just bluntly,” Smith said, speaking on The GMM Podcast.
“I didn’t have the mental fortitude to do it, and so I just got my butt kicked for many years.”
While the two-time Olympic champion and eight-time medallist has more often than not found herself chasing rather than leading the Australian, Smith nonetheless has an admiration for McKeown and a pride in knowing that their ongoing battle in the pool is currently one of swimming’s greatest.
“I know I have continued to just sit there right behind her for many years, but at the end of the day, I am super glad people watch as closely as they do, and again, I think it’s super good for the sport”, Smith continued.
“You have to understand that swimming is a time-based sport. What Kaylee is doing is absolutely obscene, and what she’s been able to do year after year after year is absolutely unreal.
“Any other year, any other person, if I hadn’t overlapped with Kaylee, I would have had so much dominance, and that’s not taking away from Kaylee, and that’s not trying to pat myself on the back, but that the competition is getting so unbelievably hard.
“We’re up here head and shoulders above everyone else.”