Regan Smith doesn't expect to be star-struck this week when she competes at the Olympic trials for the first time. Though she's only 14, the Lakeville resident already has raced in a meet with Olympic gold medalists Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky, an experience she described as "cool" and "fun."

Anxiety wasn't part of the equation then, and Smith wasn't feeling it last week when she concluded a block of altitude training in Arizona. Last fall, at age 13, she tested herself against many of the world's fastest swimmers at the Arena Pro Series meet in Minneapolis. She finished fifth in the 200-meter backstroke and ninth in the 100 back, stamping her as a rising talent.

Smith already is well-known in elite swim circles after setting numerous U.S. age-group records and medaling at the state high school championships at age 12. Her move to Apple Valley's Riptide Swim Club — and coach Mike Parratto, who guided 12-time Olympic medalist Jenny Thompson — has made her faster than ever. While the website SwimSwam has labeled Smith a dark-horse candidate for an Olympic berth in the 100 back, the teen is coy about her goals in Omaha.

"I'm going in there hoping to get personal bests," Smith said. "I just want to do the best I can. That's all I can ask for.

"It's going to be an awesome experience. I don't really like to think about [making the Olympic team]. It's a good goal, but I just want to focus on now and try not to get too ahead of myself."

At the trials, Smith will swim the 100 and 200 back and the 100 butterfly. She is a member of the U.S. junior national team and holds four national age-group records.

Smith, who will be a freshman this fall at Lakeville North, finished second in the 100-yard back and 100 fly at the state Class 2A championships as a seventh-grader in 2014. Her father, Paul, said her talent manifested itself almost immediately. Smith got in the pool at age 2 and started competing at 7 ½, begging her father to let her join a swim club after watching her older sister, Brenna, race.

"It became evident pretty quickly that she was gifted," Paul Smith said. "In club swimming, you have time standards, and a double-A time is a champ time. In her first little meet, she got five champ times in six swims. That was a very big deal."

Smith no longer competes for her high school team, but she still attends classes. That helps her maintain a balance between an intensifying training regimen — which consumes about 14 hours per week — and life outside the pool.

A substantial group of family and friends will be in Omaha to watch Smith, who will be one of the youngest swimmers in the field. She enters with personal-best times of 1 minute, 1.49 seconds in the 100 back and 2:13.72 in the 200 back.

The SwimSwam website noted that at every Olympics since 1992, at least one American swimmer has been 15 years old or younger. It predicted that Smith or Alex Walsh, 14, could keep that string going in Rio, though Smith is not approaching the meet with that in mind.

"I just really want to go out and have a lot of fun with it," she said. "I think it's going to be a great meet."