What Is It Like To Be A Special Olympic Athlete While Dealing With A Vision Disability Feat. Ashton Smith

In this episode Durell is joined by former USA Special Olympic swimmer Ashton Smith. Durell and Ashton begin the episode talking about how they got connected. Durell shares that the connection really began through a mutual connection they both share. Ashton shares that she began to really appreciate Durelll’s content that he would share on Linkedin. Ashton shares that she is originally from the Dallas Fort Worth Texas area. Durell asks Ashton what type of disability she has and she shares that she is visually impaired and she was born blind in one eye. Durell and Ashton talk about having the mutual feeling sometimes of why they had to be born with a disability, and Ashton shares the feeling of being written off by people. She shares that one of the things she desires most in life is to be given the information she needs to be able to support herself and properly execute so she can live a happy life.


Durell and Ashton talk about her first learning how to swim at eight years old. She shares that one of the reasons that she wanted to learn how to swim was watching someone almost drown. She knew that she didn’t want to be a statistic because the state of Texas leads the nation in drownings. She shares that the black community doesn’t often take a keen interest in swimming but her family felt comfortable sending her to different places once she had a strong proficiency to show she could swim. Durell shares that there are certain things that most black people culturally don’t gravitate to initially and swimming is one of those things. He shares that most people in the black community gravitate more to football and basketball culturally. Ashton shares that nowadays there are so many tutorials and how to videos for learning how to swim on Youtube as well as places like the YMCA that give out scholarships to learn how to swim.

Ashton shares that she began to train at the USA swimming camps at Texas A&M University when she was in highschool. Durell asks her how those training sessions were and she said they would last for three hours. Ashton shares that her training would also consist of dryland activity such as lifting weights and running. She shares the importance of eating right during competition as well as not consuming large amounts of alcohol. Durell also shares that part of being an athlete is having discipline which also mirrors the music industry. Ashton shares that she joined the Special Olympics with several sports. She played basketball, flag football, track and field but swimming was always the main thing that she enjoyed doing.

Ashton shares that she is very proud of the different swimming events that she medaled in when she competed in the Special Olympics in Seattle, Washington in 2018. Ashton said that her goal is to build her own brand. She shares that she doesn’t like the idea of building someone else’s fame and not getting paid for it. Ashton and Durell talk about being able to take advantage of a platform no matter how big or small it is. There are definitely opportunities that can be had with that mentality.

Ashton and Durell end the episode talking about her interview on ESPN for the Special Olympics. She shares that even though she enjoyed doing the interview she felt she didn’t gain anything from doing it. Durell talks with Ashton about another passion of hers which is activism. She shares that a gentlemen named Mr. Harland is key in helping her with the things that she’d like to see changed politically. Ashton shares that voter rights is one of the things that drives her when it comes to activism. Ashton shares that public speaking is something that she wants to do more of because of the opportunity to share her story and impact others. She is also excited about the release of her book entitled “Swimming Upstream To Realize The Dream”. Durell asks Ashton about some of her daily struggles that she deals with everyday. She shares specifics of how having a vision disability has made life harder but she is determined to put herself into situations that lead to success.

For more info you can follow Ashton Smith please visit:
LinkedIn- https://bit.ly/3nKbom8
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3CsxaPh
Twitter: https://bit.ly/3CoyqD9