{"id":243471,"date":"2017-03-01T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=243471"},"modified":"2017-03-01T11:06:57","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T18:06:57","slug":"how-clark-smith-became-a-distance-phenom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/how-clark-smith-became-a-distance-phenom\/","title":{"rendered":"How Clark Smith Became a Distance Phenom"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alec Scott, Swimming World College Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the last two years,\u00a0Clark Smith<\/strong> has established himself as one of the premier distance freestylers in the country, but it didn\u2019t start out that way for the 6-foot-9 University of Texas senior from Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was being recruited, most coaches thought I would have more potential in the 100 fly and 100 free my junior and senior year, so that\u2019s a bit of a disappointment,\u201d Smith laughed.<\/p>\n

Smith swam a 46.54 100 fly as a high school senior, but after winning an NCAA title in the 500 free as a sophomore at the University of Texas, he started to turn his training more toward distance. At the beginning of his junior season, a 2000 free time trial at the famed \u201cEddie Reese Invitational\u201d changed everything.<\/p>\n

\"clark-smith-eddie-reese-texas\"

Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold \/ Aringo Photos<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEddie asked me to do a timed 2000 and at the 1650 split I think was like 14:37 or 38,\u201d Smith said. \u201cFrom that point we kind of had a silent agreement that I was going to do the mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The switch paid off as Smith set a new American record in the 1000 free<\/a> with an 8:33.93 at the 2015 Texas Invite and a new Texas team record in the 1650 free at the Big 12 championships with a 14:31.29. He followed up his junior season with a gold medal in the Rio Olympics<\/a> as part of the preliminary 800 freestyle relay.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s training habits made the transition to distance relatively simple, the way he sees it, he always put in the work to be able to do a mile, even if he just started racing it last year, a trait he credits to former Texas teammate Michael McBroom<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael McBroom is basically the reason I\u2019m doing distance now, having someone like him to train with made the difference for me,\u201d Smith said. \u201cMy first week at Texas after my senior year, he dove an 800 free in practice and went 7:52, having someone like that around just makes you better. I\u2019ve never seen anyone do what he could do in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heading into his final NCAA championships, Smith is more comfortable with the mile than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve swam it about five or six times now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s never easy, but I\u2019m definitely more comfortable with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaches and teammates haven\u2019t held back their praise for Smith\u2019s work ethic. Following Townley Haas<\/strong>\u2019 200 freestyle win<\/a> at Olympic Trials Texas head coach Eddie Reese<\/strong> told Texassports.com, \u201cTownley is a hard worker in practice every day,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s the only swimmer I\u2019ve got who never gave up on trying to beat Clark Smith in a workout. I don\u2019t know anyone who can do that. Townley never gave up. He kept trying and it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith doesn’t to read too much into that kind of praise, he had an easy way to describe his training habits, \u201cI don\u2019t really think about motivation,\u201d he said. \u201cI just turn my brain off and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alec Scott, Swimming World College Intern Over the last two years,\u00a0Clark Smith has established himself as one of the premier distance freestylers in the country, but it didn\u2019t start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4274,"featured_media":210024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,17,7],"tags":[27592,1342,25131,60586,32647],"class_list":["post-243471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","category-commentary","category-usa","tag-clark-smith","tag-eddie-reese","tag-michael-mcbroom","tag-texas-mens-swimming","tag-townley-haas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nHow 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