Graeme Smith (swimmer)

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Men's swimming
Olympic medal record
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	1500 m freestyle

For other persons named Graeme Smith, see Graeme Smith (disambiguation).

Graeme Smith (born March 31, 1976, Falkirk, Scotland) 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 SC Championships 1999 in Lisbon, he captured the golden medal in the same event.

Born in Falkirk, his family moved 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 consequentive Summer Olympics, starting in 1996. But he failed to qualify for the Olympic 1500m Freestyle in Sydney, Australia, after beaten in the trials by Paul Palmer and Adam Faulkner. That feat can be considered as the lowest point in his career^{[citation needed]}. Booking his ticket to Sydney as a reserve in the 4x200m Freestyle Relay was no consolation and initially he decided that he would decline his place on the British team and quit the sport^{[citation needed]}.

In 2001, he 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^{[citation needed]}.

He retired from competitive swimming after the 2004 Summer Olympics.