Grace Smith '24 Recruiting Profile

I started track when I was 7 years old. The first day my mom told me that I was just trying it out. As I was doing the workout, which was 8x400m, my mom was signing me up. I started by running the 400m, the 200m, and doing the long jump. When I was 8, I went to my first Junior Olympics and came placed in the top 8 in the long jump and 100m. That’s when I started saying that I wanted to go to the Olympics. I've always been sure that I wanted to go far in track and field. 

When I was 9, I got my first season-ending injury. I was devastated when I learned I had strained my hip and had to go to physical therapy for a while. I honestly loved physical therapy because of my physical therapist. When I look back I think that is when I started loving sports medicine. I went back to physical therapy a couple of times and kept thinking how enjoyable it must be. I decided in middle school that I wanted to do something with sports medicine or kinesiology. I also decided this year that I wanted to minor in nutrition because my friends always call me the nutritionist. I am passionate about making sure people are eating well and taking care of their bodies correctly because I know what it can do for you and have learned from my experiences.

 Throughout the years of my sport, I have learned a lot about myself. I've learned that I’m a very determined person and I like to be a leader. I've been captain of my club team, Smyrna Elite, for a couple of years and I love it. I like being the role model for kids that are younger than me and helping them through a lot of what I went through. I think something unique about my track career is that I do the long jump, sprints, and hurdles. I think they all help each other and it makes doing certain things in those events easier. I’m also a student athletic trainer at my school. This helps me understand more about my body and I know how to treat and prevent a lot of injuries.