Ashton Smith is a Gold Medalist
in Swimming in the arena of people with disabilities. She had the privilege of
competing in the World Games, Dubai and in Seattle, at a National US Games. It
is a unique honor, and she was truly blessed to have accomplished that feat,
which is especially amazing since she is legally blind. Many things stuck out
in her journey from hometown hero to homeless, world-class gold medalist
despite having a limiting disability. Her road to greatness started when she
was nine years old. As a "Differently Abled" person, she found herself
being left out of events, overlooked, and under picked. To say it caused inner
trauma would be putting it mild. She learned to cope by escaping into swimming,
which can be a team sport or an individual one. She found herself at the YMCA
in Waxahachie almost daily.
Once ASHTON SMITH discovered the water, she was naturally drawn to it. Once the staff at the YMCA saw that she loved to swim, they encouraged, empowered, and enabled her to train and blossom into that youth capable enough to capture a spot on the Special Olympics team. Most people have an erroneous perception of that organization. There are varying levels of competitiveness involved, and one of the underlying reasons for their existence is to assist athletes that are disadvantaged for any number of reasons.
Ashton Smith’s blindness afforded her the opportunity of competing as a swimmer for the organization. Ashton Smith told LHMPR Radio Podcast Host Yvonne Wilcox that she would like to move forward by monetizing her historic winnings and her completion from the Organization. Ashton went on to say that the restrictions and limitations that are in place make it almost impossible for an athlete to capitalize on their brand while still a member of that organization. However, now that she has severed ties with the organization, her plan is to make sure that she has a podcast show so that she ca speak freely about her experiences. Her second hope is to get her book that is already written and published on Amazon promoted more. She said that she is seeing her goals starting to happen right before her eyes (no pun intended).
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