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Graeme Smith (swimmer)

The Olympic Games, or Olympics, is an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C, the modern games started from 1896.The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent atleast one color of the participating country’s national flag.

Graeme Smith was born on March 31, 1976 in Falkirk, Scotland. He is a former British freestyle swimmer. He won the bronze medal in the 1500m Freestyle at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Three years later, at the European Championship in 1999 in Lisbon and captured the golden medal in the same event. Born in Falkirk, his family relocated to settle just outside Manchester when he was three years old. He started swimming, when he was four and joined his local swimming club, Saracens at the age of eight. Amazingly, he never won his national age groups.

Smith competed in three successive Summer Olympics which started in 1996, but failed to qualify for the Olympic 1500 meter Freestyle in Sydney, Australia after being overpowered in the trials by Paul Palmer and Adam Faulkner. That feat was the lowest point in his career. Booking his ticket to Sydney as a reserve in the 4 by 200m Freestyle Relay was no consolation and initially he decided that he would decline his place on the British team and left the sport.

In 2001, Smith became only the 12th man to break the 15-minute barrier and won 2001 World Aquatics Championships silver and bronze in Japan. His perseverance had paid off and crucially, his confidence was back. He retired from competitive swimming after the 2004 Summer Olympics. He had the ability of defeating the opponent easily by just giving some extra hard work and efforts.

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