After Years Of Avoiding Attention, Lizzi Smith Is Ready For The Spotlight In Paris

If Lizzi Smith as a middle school kid could see herself today, she might not believe it.

As a young swimmer, Smith didn’t want to be seen. The last thing she wanted was to call any more attention than necessary to the fact that she was born with one hand.

Now, the 28-year-old from Muncie, Indiana, is a decorated Paralympic swimmer competing in her third Games. Photos of Smith in and out of the water, smiling widely and proudly showing off Zeus, her name for her new robotic hand, fill her social media accounts. She’s the subject of a new documentary short, “Swimming with Butterflies.” And the person who once didn’t even want to smile because it might bring unwanted attention is now one of four captains leading the U.S. team at the Paralympics.  

“It’s a huge honor,” she said, of joining Hannah Aspden, Evan Austin and David Abrahams as team captains. “I started Paralympic swimming when I was 12 and I was a very quiet kid. My first world championship team (in 2013) I maybe said a total of 10 words, so my own personal journey of finding my voice and using my voice and having my teammates embrace what I have to say and how I have to say it is just the coolest thing. To be chosen by my teammates before the biggest competition of their lives to help lead them is pretty surreal.”

Smith remembers former U.S. Para swimming leaders such as Anna Eames and Brad Snyder being team captains when she was starting out, and the wisdom they shared about what it meant to be a part of Team USA. 

But, as she says in the new documentary, her early career was plagued by a lack of confidence. When she made her Paralympic debut in Rio in 2016 at the age of 20, she didn’t believe she had what it took to make the podium. Heading into Rio, Smith had a deep desire to erase Lizzi the girl with one hand by finding success as Lizzi the swimmer. When she missed a medal in the women’s 100-meter butterfly S9 by an increment of time too small to even perceive, she worried she’d then be known as the swimmer who came up short in big moments. 

But that was then.

Now, Smith is in her third Paralympics as the defending silver medalist in the 100-meter butterfly S9. While doubts can sometimes creep back into her mind, she now has the tools to quiet them. That growth that happened between the ages of 20 and 25, she said, came about in large part from working with young swimmers and feeling comfortable in sharing herself and her experience.

“I think for so long I didn’t really talk about the experience of having one hand,” she said. “Shame grows in the dark, and I had a shameful experience around having one hand. But I found the more I talked about it, the more I found that experience is shared with other people. Not necessarily with limb differences, but everyone has their thing that feels like this shameful secret when really it’s not. It’s one of the most beautiful pieces about them, and it unlocks their superpower.” 

In a recent video posted on her Instagram account, Smith gave the scoop on her robotic hand that she got earlier this year. She explained how it works and added that while she wasn’t necessarily always in the mood for the questions she gets while in public, she still encouraged people to ask what they wanted to know on social media.

“The questions and looks I get (in public) are very different when I have it on versus when I don’t,” she said. “People are a lot more forward asking questions when I have it on. They’ll be like, ‘Can I touch it? Can you shake my hand?’ Very bold.”

It’s attention that Smith no doubt would have recoiled from when she was younger. 

Now, she said, she’s much more rooted in herself. 

She’s also full of wisdom to impart to young swimmers who may be just where she was today.

“I have more of an understanding of how I work and how I process things, how I need to recharge and what I want out of these Games than I did then,” she said. “Even the regulation skills to process highs and lows. That’s a big difference that’s developed over the last eight years. Swimming felt like it was everything, and I had to get a medal to know I was worthy. Now I know it’s the journey and the people you meet along the way that make up who you are.”

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.