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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Kat Smith, a member of the Lakeshore Foundation swim team, swims laps during practice at the Lakeshore Foundation.
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Photo courtesy of Carolyn Smith.
The Lakeshore Foundation swim team.
From a young age, Kat Smith loved swimming, but she had to wear a life jacket at first.
“It wasn’t her who wanted it; it took a while for us to get brave enough to let her swim without it,” said her mom, Carolyn Smith.
The reason for the apprehension: her daughter has cerebral palsy, which causes her to have low muscle tone throughout her body.
“When she was a baby, she couldn’t even hold her head up for forever and couldn’t sit until she was around 2,” Carolyn said. “She used a walker until the sixth grade.”
But over the years, Kat — who turns 21 in September — has overcome a lot and become an accomplished competitive swimmer.
In July, she, along with six other team members of the team, made a U.S. National Paralympic qualifying time during The Hartford Nationals swimming competition at the Lakeshore Foundation. The Hartford Nationals were held in partnership with Move United, the nation’s leading community-based adaptive sports organization.
Emily Mallard, Kat’s coach and Lakeshore’s aquatics coordinator, said that accomplishment enables Smith to go to nationals in mid-December, where she could have the opportunity to “move on to the World Series level and international level to hopefully earn a spot on Team USA in the future.”
Kat said that’s the dream.
“I’d very much like to do that,” she said, noting that she’s found her niche in swimming. “I always wanted to play a sport or do something physical, and swimming was just a great sport for me. I tried other things, but this clicked.”
Her mom said water is an “equalizer” for her, and she agreed. “My body works better in water than on land,” Kat said.
Kat started swimming in the life jacket when she was in elementary school, then at 16 she started swimming without it at Life Time Fitness.
Kat’s father, Nathan, said his daughter is “a very, very driven person” and has the competitive spirit of his side of the family.
“It has served Kat well to have that in her genetic code to keep going,” he said, noting that no matter what has come her way, she has never stopped.
Nathan said his daughter is constantly pushing herself and is “definitely not scared to try new things.”
Before swimming competitively, she would beg him to join the team at Life Time, he said, adding that that spirit is consistent in her life outside the pool, too.
“She always wants me to take her to the track to work on her gait, her balance and her jogs,” he said.
She also helped manage her high school soccer team until she graduated from Mountain Brook High School in May 2022, and now she’s studying with college in mind.
Kat joined the team at Lakeshore Foundation after graduation. She was immediately recognized as a breaststroke specialist but, more importantly, a leader.
“She was just one of those who put in a lot of extra work and was really self-motivated and went above and beyond to encourage the team and work on herself,” Mallard said.
For her whole life, Kat has pressed through physical difficulties, including some mild visual impairment in addition to cerebral palsy. Then in November 2021, she had a pulmonary valve replaced, then she had to returned by ambulance to the hospital after discharge for a second surgery.
“That was pretty rough, but she overcame that,” Carolyn said.
Just six months later, Kat joined the Lakeshore team. She now practices four afternoons a week at Lakeshore, sometimes doubling up with morning swims at Life Time Fitness as well.
“The most amazing thing about her, though, is how dedicated she is,” she said. “Even if she can’t come to Lakeshore, she’ll put in time with another pool, or if she’s at the lake, she’ll work on dives. She’ll pick something she wants to work on.”
Mallard said Kat “progressed really well over last season,” but in February she experienced a new hurdle to overcome: a shoulder issue.
“Despite all of that, through her good days and bad days, she continued to kick and do what she could and came to meets to be with the team, then made her national Paralympic qualifying time at the meet in July,” Mallard said. “She was so excited, and I’m excited for her.”
Nathan said Lakeshore has been a great place for his daughter to grow even more.
“That facility is a hidden gem; we’re very lucky to have it in Birmingham,” he said, noting that it’s one of only seven elite U.S. Olympic & Paralympic training facilities in the nation.
Nathan said his daughter has also benefited from swimming with the Lakeshore team in meets with able-bodied swimmers at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
“That exposure has caused the swim team to grow in popularity,” he said. “People will come to the meet, see our team swimming and they’ll know someone who might want to be a part. The team has grown, and we have swimmers from Huntsville, Hamilton, even one from Memphis.”
Kat Smith said the meets mean a lot to her, and occasionally they come with other memorable life experiences, too. For instance, at a competition in Colorado in July 2022, she was able to watch Paralympic swimmer Julia Gaffney break a record in the 200-meter backstroke.
Gaffney, a double-leg amputee who competed in the 2020 Paralympics with Team USA and has medaled 12 times at world championship meets, set aside some time after competing to have lunch with the Smiths. That was inspiring for Kat, since she and Gaffney share the same Paralympic S7 classification on the scale of physical ability levels.
“It was an amazing experience,” Kat said.
Kat’s next competition will be the Fred Lamback Para-Swimming Open in Cumming, Georgia, Sept. 29-Oct. 1. Nationals will be in mid-December, with date and location still to be announced.
