He was dubbed "the next Ian Thorpe". or signup to continue reading Instead a burnt out 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 for his dreams to be dashed once again.
The remarkable journey taught Smith the importance of mental health. Now clean and sober for more than a decade, he is hoping to share the lesson ahead of 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. The next year he won a staggering eight gold medals at the national age championships.
It seemed the sky was the limit. Instead he crashed and burned. "Everyone knew me as 'the next Ian Thorpe'," he said.
"I didn't really have a life outside sport. "I was lost and didn't really have any sense of identity. Drugs gave me a temporary escape and one thing led to another.
" Smith lost his way after training "too hard, too young". "They say your window for making an Olympics and achieving your dream is 18 to 24," he said. "I was training like I was 20 when I was just 13.
There was always this expectation to keep improving. "Then I started mixing with the wrong crowd at school which gave me an escape from the limelight - that was how I fell into substance abuse." First he dabbled in drinking, then party drugs.
"I was always looking for that next thin.
