In the depths of our COVID winter, when all of Melbourne was stuck in a government-ordered lockdown for which there seemed to be no key, Brendon Smith would wade each morning into the icy waters of Port Phillip Bay in pursuit of a distant Olympic dream.

The public health restrictions meant that for nine weeks, the Nunawading pool where Smith trains was shut, along with every other public pool in Melbourne. So at 6am, when the city was still dark and mostly sleeping, Brendon and his sister Mikayla, also an aspiring Olympian, would rise to make the drive from their Donvale home to the frigid surrounds of Half Moon Bay.

Brendon Smith stretches out during the 400m individual medley final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.Credit:Getty Images

There, they would pull on their wetsuits and together swim a 7km loop from Beaumaris to the Sandgringham yacht club and back again. Their only other company on the water was Robert Butcher, a family friend from the Half Moon Bay Lifesaving Club, who would paddle alongside them on his ski.

Melbourne is now back in lockdown and the pools are again shut. But in Tokyo on Sunday, Smith reached a place which, at times during those long, cold swims, felt absurdly out of reach; the Olympic podium.

In the first event of the opening night of the swimming finals, Smith finished third in the 400 metres individual medley to win Australia’s first medal at these Games. It came after he cleaved seconds of his previous best time to first make the team and then, the Olympic final.

“When the Games were postponed for 12 months I knew it gave me an opportunity to better myself,” he said. “I would be one year older, one year stronger and one year faster. So I think it was a bit of a blessing for me.

Brendon Smith with gold medallist Chase Kalisz (centre) and silver medallist Jay Litherland. Credit:Getty Images

“But in saying that, I have gone through hell to get here, having to swim in the ocean for the two months in Melbourne when it was getting down to 12 and 11 degrees in the water.″⁣

The ocean is a familiar place for the Smith family, who for three generations have switched from pool swimming to open-water swimming and surf life saving as easily as Smith changes strokes in a medley.

Brendon’s father Peter was an outstanding swimmer in the pool and the surf, his mother Annisa was an open-water swimmer and ironwoman competitor. His three sisters Nerice, Mikayla and Reidel are all national-level swimmers.

The Smith swimming family: Brendon Smith at age 13 with his older sisters Nerice and Mikayla and younger sister Reidel.

Mikayla and Brendon are also inseparable. Shortly after shouting herself hoarse during Brendon’s swim, she told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald that being alongside her brother was the only thing that made those freezing swims bearable last year.

She said they swam every day, sometimes twice. They created a few different courses. One of them involved swimming laps around the wreck of the Cerberus, an old navy ship sunk as a breakwater off the Half Moon Bay pier.

“I was the driver,” she said. “I’d get us up in the morning, make a cup of coffee for myself and Brendon a hot chocolate and he’d sometimes get in the car still half asleep. But he was really the one that wanted to do it.

“At the start we just had wetsuits but by the end we had to get wetsuit caps because the water was so cold it would give you a headache.

“We do practically everything together; we swim together, we used to go to uni together, we do gym together, we did runs during lockdown together. It’s just nice knowing I always have somebody there with me. He’s my best friend, for sure.″⁣

Smith said there were times, out in the dark expanse of the bay, when no matter how far he swam, he didn’t feel he was getting any closer to where he needed to be. “I did feel like it was never going to come,” he said. He’s arrived at these Games.

Smith celebrated his 21st birthday earlier this month while the Australian team was heading into camp in Cairns and has now come of age in the toughest event in Olympic swimming. It is an extraordinary achievement given that when they were kids, Brendon was considered the Smith least likely to make a go of swimming.

Mikayla Smith, Brendon Smith’s sister, training partner and best friend, and their dog Rusty, on the morning of this medal-winning swim.

Smith started swimming at the age of six. In the Smith family, you don’t really have a choice. Brendon’s grandmother Margaret Smith taught swimming at Nunawading for 40 years and is very particular about water safety. She also ran marathons, so there is no point complaining to her about hard work.

Throughout his early teens, Brendon struggled to keep pace with the best kids his age and was regularly overlooked for teams. When he was 16, some of the coaches at Nunawading had already put a line through his name as a potential elite swimmer. But one coach. Scott Talbott, the son of the the legendary Don Talbott, saw something in Brendon.

To the consternation of some at the club, he invited him to train, alongside Mikayla, in his high-performance squad. Australia’s head coach Rohan Taylor, a former head coach at Nunawading, is also a believer. He used to laugh at how competitive the Smith kids were against one another and could see that Brendon was a fighter in the water.

“He has really had to step up on his own,” Mikayla said. “I think it has made him a very humble person. When you talk to him for the first time, he probably won’t mention that he swims. He is just a normal kid that has gone from strength to strength.″⁣

Mikayla and her Gran, aunt Sharon and Rusty, a pampered Cavoodle adored by Mikayla and Brendon, watched Sunday’s race from Melbourne. She spoke to Brendon on the night before his race, after he had shocked the swimming world by qualifying fastest for the final.

“I just said soak it all up, you have done the hard work, whatever you achieve is a bonus. I couldn’t be more proud.”

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