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Regan Smith Withdraws from 2024 Pro Swim Series Opener in Knoxville

2024 TYR PRO SWIM SERIES – KNOXVILLE

US Olympian Regan Smith will not race at the Knoxville stop of the Pro Swim Series next week, Swimming World is reporting.

Smith, 21, was entered in six events for the American kickoff in the run to the Olympic Games, including a predicted show-stopping matchup with Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh in the 200 fly. Smith ranked #1 in the world and McIntosh #2 in the world in that event last season, though it was McIntosh who won gold at the World Championships with Smith coming home with bronze.

Smith revealed in an interview last month in The Athletic that she tested positive for mono shortly after winning the 100 back, 200 back, and 200 fly at the US Open in November. That cost her time out of training.

Smith described the challenge of staying focused while battling illness, saying “It’s been really hard to stay positive when I’m not able to be at my best, knowing Paris is only seven months away…It’s honestly an ongoing battle.”

This is the second-straight season in which Smith had been forced out of this meet with an illness. Last year, she swam the first session of the meet, but then pulled out due to what she called a “stomach bug/food poisoning.”

Smith is not the only Sun Devil swimmer who tested positive for mono in December: fellow World Record holder Leon Marchand was also dealing with Mono last month.

Smith, one of the big US medal hopes headed towards the Olympics later this year, was also scheduled to swim the 100 free, 200 free, 100 back, and 200 IM next weekend in Knoxville. Racing is scheduled for January 10-13, and will still feature at least 18 other swimmers who have won Olympic or World Championship medals, including Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel, and Kate Douglass.

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Tony
3 months ago

Reagan Smith is truly one of the greatest swimmers in history I enjoy watching her compete I wish her and her family nothing but the best

Swim Guy
10 months ago

Regan and Leon got it during the same time. Same training group to. This is a little suspicious…😏

Smimming fan
Reply to  Swim Guy
10 months ago

Hubert could say something here

Last edited 10 months ago by Smimming fan
ScovaNotiaSwimmer
Reply to  Smimming fan
10 months ago

So is the high school BF no more?

Babashoff - Woodhead - Evans - Ledecky
Reply to  ScovaNotiaSwimmer
10 months ago

LDR is very hard

snailSpace
Reply to  ScovaNotiaSwimmer
10 months ago

That Hubert rumour at this point is based on a single insta story in which Regan played a tabletop game with Hubert and his family when they visited him for Christmas. But that’s entirely too much gossip already and I’m pretty sure Hubert also had the illness right after Leon did, so. They are all involved obviously (cue the love dodecahedron comment from below).

PCB
10 months ago

You’ll be fine, Regan! You’ll snap back and this will be a thing of the past shortly.

You got this! USA is rooting for you.

Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
Reply to  PCB
10 months ago

I hope it doesn’t affect her in Paris.

I want Kaylee to win, but I want her to win because she’s the best, not because the competition got sick.

ReneDescartes
10 months ago

Really surprised no one has blamed Meehan for this yet.

snailSpace
Reply to  ReneDescartes
10 months ago

That reminds me: where on earth is relay names guy?

bubbles
Reply to  snailSpace
10 months ago

i wanted to ask the same thing but didn’t want to bring them back from the dead

i suspect their disappearance might have to do with stanford performing well at midseason

Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
Reply to  snailSpace
10 months ago

It’s funny how some users seem to cause a ruckus and then disappear.

In remembrance of:

Relay names guy
Vinay
Sleep Paralysis Demon

Joel
Reply to  Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
10 months ago

Were they all the same person?

Troyy
Reply to  Joel
10 months ago

They had different posting styles. Pretty sure SPD and Vinay got banned and I know at some point relay names guy’s posts were all on manual approval.

Southerly Buster
Reply to  Troyy
10 months ago

Relay names guy seemed to disappear soon after Fukuoka. I assumed that the nearly 4 minute margins in the Womens Freestyle relays were too much for him.

He had genuine opinions even if he expressed them in unrelenting, combative and sometimes vitriolic ways. I hope he returns before the Olympics; he added something to this site’s appeal. (Even Bobby Finke commented on him). 

Emily Se-Bom Lee
Reply to  Southerly Buster
10 months ago

his comments were absolutely in bad faith. he blames everything on meehan even when it has nothing to do with him. if relay names guy was here now, he’d be blaming regan’s mono on meehan.

he also left these two comments about lilly king:

https://staging.swimswam.com/2023-westmont-pro-swim-series-day-4-finals-live-recap/#comment-1185050

https://staging.swimswam.com/2023-u-s-trials-day-2-finals-live-recap/#comment-1214479

Last edited 10 months ago by Emily Se-Bom Lee
Southerly Buster
Reply to  Southerly Buster
10 months ago

*4 second margins

snailSpace
Reply to  Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
10 months ago

May they never return! 🙏🏻

Swimmerj
10 months ago

Someone needs to cut this girl a f***ing break. Get better soon Regan!❤️

Knotty Buoy
10 months ago

Dear Regan: you will be fine.

In 1984 Joan Benoit (Samuelson) underwent arthroscopic knee surgery just 17 days before the United States Olympic Women’s Marathon Trials were scheduled. She recovered quickly, and not only made the US team but went to win the gold in LA!

In 2021, Great Britain’s Tom Dean had Covid (twice) seven months before the Tokyo Olympics but went on to win the 200 free!

1960, leading US sprinter Jeff Farrell had his appendix removed a week before US Trials, but somehow made the team anyway, and went on to anchor the victorious US medley relay in Rome!

Go get ‘em Regan!

Babashoff - Woodhead - Evans - Ledecky
Reply to  Knotty Buoy
10 months ago

Closer example:

MOC injured her knees and two months later won 5 gold medals and broke the venerable 200 free WR at 2023 World Championship.

Troyy
Reply to  Knotty Buoy
10 months ago

I’ll save that one about Joan Benoit for next time the trolls bring up Mollie’s knee injury.

Jack
Reply to  Knotty Buoy
10 months ago

Not to mention Phelps broke his wrist like 7 months out from Beijing. And, I mean my memory is a bit hazy but I *think* he was pretty decent in that meet.

Diehard
10 months ago

Is mono ever a result of over training?

Xman
Reply to  Braden Keith
10 months ago

Did you wear a hat outside?

Xman
Reply to  Braden Keith
10 months ago

With those Chicago winters you better have worn it. Frost bite!

Elsa Nystrom
Reply to  Braden Keith
10 months ago

I had one of those kids. Hey mine would see who had the best frozen hair by the time we got home from the pool Heaters werent very good in those old station wagons.

YEah
Reply to  Braden Keith
10 months ago

you would

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Braden Keith
10 months ago

great now asu’s gonna show up on the Flight Logs.

Hawaiian Reeves
Reply to  Braden Keith
10 months ago

There are actually multiple viruses that cause mono. It is not just a result of EBV. CMV and other viruses also cause mono.

Roxy
Reply to  Diehard
10 months ago

Overtraining can cause decreased immunity with frequent viral infections, so it can increase your risk of getting mono if exposed. It would be interesting to compare the mono rates for college/ pro swimmers to other age-matched groups who spend that much time together. Mono seems to be rampant on college swim teams.

FST
Reply to  Roxy
10 months ago

It’s rampant everywhere. 95% of all people in the world will have had mono by their mid-20s.
The problem we in the high-income countries have with it is that we don’t get infected as young children but rather teenagers and young adults. As children, the symptoms are much less severe, as with many other children’s diseases. I had HFMD at 30 and I thought I was going to die… it was the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. So painful!
The problem with mono is that “normal” people just think it’s the flu and stay in bed until they feel better. It also doesn’t show up on a regular blood screen, you have to specifically test for… Read more »

BRD
Reply to  Roxy
10 months ago

Yea it’s called swimcest for a reason

Owlmando
10 months ago

Thats such a bummer

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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