July 7, 2025

Sebastian Smith took a deep breath. He got ready for his big moment. In the distance, he could hear the roar of the crowd. A few moments later, the stadium announcer called out his name. Through the huge curtains Smith got a glimpse of the Lucas Oil stadium, the home field of the Indianapolis Colts. As he walked onto the stage, it suddenly got very hot. Huge flames flared up next to him and made his entrance look quite dramatic. His heart was racing. The excitement started to take over. Smith took one last deep breath, locked in and got ready to dive into the water at the biggest swimming competition of his life.

Smith experienced a lot of highlights in his young swimming career. While competing for Roy C. Ketcham High School, he became New York State champion in 2022, received three All-American awards and broke every swimming record for his high school. At Drexel, he continued to shine, earning multiple medals, including gold in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle events at the 2024 CAA championships.

Smith is also an unofficial world record holder. In an Instagram video that has almost a half million views, Smith is seen jumping in the pool while wearing jeans. In 23.28 seconds, he swam the 50-meter butterfly in jeans which still is the world record.

However, nothing tops competing at the 2024 Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Smith said.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than this. Swimming in an NFL Stadium in front of more than 20,000 people was just an amazing experience,” Smith said.

The 21-year-old always had the goal of qualifying for the Olympic Trials. It was a dream come true to compete in the 100-meter butterfly and 50-meter freestyle in Indianapolis last year, Smith said.

To get to this stage, Smith realized that he needed to invest a lot more.

"During Covid, with all that free time and nothing else to do, something clicked, and I just started buying in a lot more. I didn’t have that many chances to compete during that time but when I did, I almost always went best times,” Smith said.

Competing and breaking records in high school put Smith in the spotlight for potential big sports Universities, you would think.

But regardless of his success, Smith went under the radar in his college recruiting process. Drexel University saw Smith’s potential early on. Drexel Swimming and Diving head coach Nathan Lavery was able to immediately convince him to commit to University City, Philadelphia.

“Drexel believed in me before a lot of the bigger schools, they saw the potential, did the research and they did the due diligence and that spoke more volumes to me than some person coming in at the last minute and handing me a check,” Smith said.

Now, after three years of competing for the Dragons, Smith couldn’t be happier with his decision to go to Drexel. He quickly became of one of Drexel’s most successful swimmers in 2022. Smith got countless medals, set new school records and has been leading the team as captain since 2024.

Smith himself is satisfied with his swimming career at Drexel.

“I’m very lucky that over the past six years, I’ve gotten better and faster every year, which is not very common, and I’m grateful to have that,” he said.

However, not only did Smith see the athletic opportunities at Drexel, he was also convinced that Drexel was the right choice for his academic pathway.

“The way I was coming into being recruited swimming-wise, it felt almost the same as like I could be a part of something on the academic side,” Smith said.

From the first day at Drexel University, the exercise science major loved what he got out of the classroom.

“The professors are all really interesting people, and they do love what they are doing, which makes it easy to learn to a certain extent,” Smith said.

Through classes, research and co-op opportunities, Smith gained valuable insights in the exercise science world that applied directly to his athletic career. His fall- and winter co-op as the sports performance coordinator at the Drexel Athletic Department has been an especially great opportunity to get experience in sports medicine, nutrition and strength and conditioning, Smith said.

He took full advantage of his Drexel co-op experience. Smith worked in the Drexel weight room daily. He was able to coach the Men’s basketball team lifts and learned a lot, he said. The knowledge and experience not only benefited him as a student but also as an athlete. After six months working alongside Drexel Athletics, he saw immense changes.

“From the beginning to the end of my co-op, I dropped three percent body fat and I learned how to nutritionally fuel myself properly. I stayed at the same weight, gained six pounds of muscle and lost six pounds of fat,” Smith said.

Smith feels at home at Drexel, but also in Philadelphia. He loves living in a big city, and the fact that Philadelphia has a professional sports team for every major sport has also been a decisive factor in why he chose Drexel over other schools.

“There are so many opportunities here, so many professional teams but also many colleges. I think that Philadelphia is the perfect place for what I want to do in my future,” Smith said.

Smith’s goal is to work alongside athletes as a strength and conditioning coach.

Currently, Smith is enrolled in summer classes while preparing for the 2025/26 swimming season. At the Drexel pool, Smith can be spotted daily swimming lap after lap to be in the best possible shape for his senior year, which will be his last year competing for the Dragons. After being unbeaten in the previous season, the Drexel captain wants to repeat his success.

Story and photography by: Rapahel Bartell, communications '27