Regan Smith, who made one of the great leaps in global swimming in 2019, experienced a disparate 2020 with obstacles right through the holidays.
There was the Olympic postponement last March. Smith wasn’t alone in being impacted — 10,000 athletes compete at the Games across all sports, and more than 1,000 Americans are legitimate Olympic hopefuls.
Then Smith, who graduated virtually from high school in June after two months out of the pool, faced a more unique dilemma among the world’s best athletes during the pandemic.
She deferred enrollment at Stanford to stay at home in Minnesota.