He was dubbed “the next Ian Thorpe.”
Instead, an exhausted Daniel Smith became a homeless ice addict.
The swimming prodigy emerged from a five-year drug hell to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, only to have his dreams dashed once again.
The extraordinary journey taught Smith the importance of mental health.
Now clean and sober for more than a decade, he hopes to share the lesson before the Paris Olympics.
“It hasn’t been an easy journey,” Smith told AAP.
“I want to help other athletes avoid what I went through.”
At 13, Smith broke the 200m freestyle age record that had been set by Olympic great Thorpe.
Daniel Smith (pictured) was a promising swimmer, but after ice addiction took hold in his teenage years, the Queenslander soon found himself living on the streets.
Smith overcame his drug and alcohol addiction to qualify for the Rio Olympics and now wants to help athletes avoid what he went through.
The following year she won an astonishing eight gold medals at the national age group championships.
It seemed like the sky was the limit.
Instead, it crashed and burned.
“Everyone knew me as ‘the next Ian Thorpe,'” he said.
‘I didn’t really have a life outside of sport.
“I was lost and had no sense of identity. Drugs gave me a temporary escape and one thing led to another.”
Smith was lost after training “too hard, too young.”
“They say that your window to do the Olympics and achieve your dream is between 18 and 24 years old,” he said.
‘I trained as if I were 20 years old when I was just 13. There was always the expectation of continuing to improve.
Smith says he lost his way by training too hard when he was too young and then hanging out with the wrong crowd while in school.
“Then I started getting mixed up with the wrong crowd at school, which allowed me to escape the spotlight, and that’s how I fell into substance abuse.”
First he tried his luck with drinking and then with party drugs.
“I was always looking for that next achievement,” Smith said.
“Most elite athletes don’t do things by halves, and I gave it my all.”
It was a slippery slope.
At 18 he was an “out of control” drug addict.
‘Unfortunately, it turned me into someone I was never meant to be. I became really nasty, really a criminal,’ she said.
‘It seemed like I had tried everything – psychologists, doctors – to get off drugs, but no matter what I did, I never succeeded.
“I had to hit rock bottom to change my life.”
That low point came when Smith found himself living on the streets after his exhausted parents kicked him out of their Gold Coast home.
“It wasn’t because my parents didn’t love me. They just didn’t know what to do after trying everything,” she said.
Smith got another chance at rehab, and this time something clicked.
“I had a natural gift for swimming, but I felt like I had wasted my life,” he said.
‘My friends went to prison and psychiatric institutions; some of them had died.
“I was getting into trouble and it was like something hit me and said, ‘What are you doing?’”
In an epiphany, Smith experienced a “flashback of all the things I had done.”
‘I felt a lot of remorse. I looked in the mirror and thought: ‘Look at the mess you’ve created, now you have to accept it.’
“It turned out that I was in a very safe rehab program, met the right person at the right time, and got the help I needed to rebuild myself.”
A rejuvenated Smith began what became a surprising return to swimming.
She won bronze at the 2015 world titles before finally achieving her Olympic dream and earning selection for the Rio Games.
But after recovering, Smith stumbled in what would become his only appearance on the Olympic stage.
Smith hopes her story will inspire athletes as they prepare to step into the spotlight at the Paris Games.
“At the Olympics, many athletes have one day in their life to do well, which means dreams can be shattered,” he said.
‘The Olympics can be a place of pain and unfortunately for me they were.
“I didn’t live up to what I was capable of doing and I never had another chance to do it.”
Smith left Rio without a medal after his 4x200m freestyle relay team finished in fourth place.
‘Did my past have anything to do with it, because I lost so many years out of the water? Yes, I do,’ Smith said of her Rio effort.
‘Unfortunately I didn’t do exactly what I wanted to do.
“But it was still an incredible experience. I can still say I went to the Olympics.”
Undaunted, Smith turned her attention to the 2020 Tokyo Games.
However, they were delayed 12 months by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in his retirement from competitive swimming.
Smith hopes his story will inspire athletes as they prepare to take the spotlight at the Paris Games.
Mental health and wellbeing will be a priority at this year’s Olympics following champion gymnast Simone Biles’ very public struggle in Tokyo.
Paris initiatives for athletes include a 24-hour helpline in more than 70 languages, a safe space in the Olympic Village to mentally prepare and an artificial intelligence system that detects threats on social media platforms to prevent online abuse.
Smith said they were encouraging measures, but some athletes facing burnout may need more.
He said he was passionate about removing the stigma sometimes associated with seeking professional help among professional athletes.
“As an elite athlete, your life is in the spotlight and under scrutiny,” said Smith, who is an ambassador for The Banyans Healthcare clinic in Brisbane.
‘I encourage anyone who wants to stay on top of their mental health to seek outside support.
“But it is up to each individual to decide what support they should have around them and what works best for them.”
Smith is now married and happy, proof that recovery is possible with the right help.
“I’ve been able to rebuild my life,” he said.
When asked how he feels now about his turbulent past, Smith said, “It seems like a bad dream.”
