When Kieran Smith was very young, he remembered going to all his older brother Grayson’s swim meets.
“As he was swimming all across the state, I was getting dragged along, that sort of thing, so I decided to give it a go myself,” Kieran Smith said. “Saw some success pretty young, so I just kept at it.”
He started swimming at age 6, and he’s still seeing success. Last Monday, Smith, 22, left for Tokyo to compete in his first Olympic Games, which begin Saturday.
The Ridgefield native, who will be a senior at the University of Florida this fall, won both the 400-meter and 200-meter freestyle events at the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb., last month, swimming his fastest time in both events. On June 13, he won the 400 in 3:44.86, significantly faster than his previous best of 3:47.71 and tied for the eighth-fastest time in the world this year.
“Once I hit the wall, it was just like pure bliss,” he said. “Such a great feeling. I felt like I could do it all over again when I touched just because of the adrenaline going through my body.”
Two nights later, he did it again in the 200 in 1:45.29, the eighth-fastest time in U.S. history (Michael Phelps has the top time, 1:42.96 in 2008).
“That was the goal, to represent the USA in those two individuals [events],” he said.
Kieran Smith started swimming with the Ridgefield Aquatic Club, joining his brother who is six years older. Grayson Smith went on to swim at Indiana University, where he specialized in distance events.
“I think every younger sibling looks up to their older sibling in some capacity,” Kieran Smith said. “He was a great swimmer himself. As he was being recruited, getting into a very good swim program at Indiana, that was pretty inspiring to me to keep at it and hopefully I could see a collegiate career for myself in the future.”
Smith, who graduated from Ridgefield High in 2018, won State Open titles in the 200 and 500 freestyle his sophomore, junior and senior years and still holds the state records in both events (1:34.89 in the 200 and 4:18.83 in the 500).
At Florida, he has already gathered numerous accolades and he still has a year to go. Smith is a 14-time All-American and was honored as the 2020 SEC Male Swimmer of the Year. He set the American record in the 500 free (4:06.32) at the 2020 SEC championships and won the NCAA 200 free title.
He said he knew he would be able to contend for an Olympic berth after competing at the 2017 FINA World Junior Championships, where he won a silver medal in the 200 meter individual medley.
“At that point, we were still three years away from the trials,” he said. “I figured if I could do everything I could for my last year of high school and get two really good years of college work in, I could have a shot at making the team in something. At the time I was thinking more IM, but as I worked through college, my freestyle got much better — it improved at a faster rate than my IM — so I had to shift gears a little bit.”
The competition will be difficult in Japan. The Australians are particularly strong.
“The Australians had a great showing at their Olympic trials,” he said. “The goal is to move through the heats, see what kind of time I can put up. The Olympic finals, the time does not matter. It’s all about racing really hard. I believe in my ability. I feel like I’ll be able to compete with anyone I’m next to. The goal is to win some medals for the United States.”
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
