SMOLIGA Olivia

General
REPRESENTING THE UNITED STATES
Her parents moved to the United States of America from Poland in 1991. She received an offer to represent Poland at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, but she declined and decided to represent the United States of America. "I had been on junior national teams as a high schooler and experienced what it was like to be on Team USA and there's nothing like it - the looks that you get when you walk on deck, the red, white and blue gear that you have. You're held to a much higher standard, you have more responsibility, and it's like the biggest privilege in the world. Even if I had the chance, I don't like taking the easy way out of anything." (teamusa.org, 20 Dec 2018)

RIO BLUES FUELS TOKYO AMBITION
Despite winning a relay gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after swimming a preliminary leg in the event [but not the final], she was not satisfied with her result in the 100m backstroke event and wants to improve her individual performance in Tokyo. "My goal in 2016 was to make the Olympic team. But I had a poor performance at the Olympics and I think that disappointing energy carried over into the next year. You have this high, then this low. My Olympic experience fell way short of what I wanted it to be. Of course, it was an honour to be a part of the preliminary relay that won gold at night, but in my mind, it didn't suffice. I wanted my individual performance to be better, and I wanted to be on a finals relay. I do put everything in perspective though, it was my first time and I learned so much from it that I will carry with me and I'm thankful for that." (usaswimming.org, 31 May 2019; swimmingworldmagazine.com, 26 Dec 2018)

At the 2018 World Short Course Championships in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, she became the first swimmer from any nation to win eight gold medals at a single edition of the world championships in a short course or long course pool. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 May 2020)