• Named WCIAU Swimmer of the Year in both years that she competed as a member of the Pandas swim team.
• Set CIAU records in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle and the 100m backstroke events; her 200m and 400m times were also Canadian records.
• Competed on Canada's national swim team for four years, winning bronze medals at the Pan American Games and the World Student Games.
• Inducted into both the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum (1978) and the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame (1995).
• Assistant coach for the Pandas, as well as numerous club teams in Edmonton and Saskatchewan.

Sandra (BPE '75) is a member of the famous Edmonton "Swimming Smiths" family. She began her competitive swimming career with the Southside Swim Club when she was only 8 years old and continued to compete in her chosen sport over the next 12 years. She matured quickly into an extraordinarily competent swimmer. By the time that Sandra was 10 years old she held 3 national age group records in the breaststroke. Two years later she competed in her first Canadian National Swimming Championship. From that point onward Sandra became a dominant freestyle swimmer. From 1967 to 1971 Sandra was a member of Canada's national swim team. She represented our nation at two Pan American Games (Winnipeg, 1967; Cali, Columbia, 1971), she narrowly missed a berth on the 1972 Olympic Games team and she was selected as a member of the 1970 Commonwealth Games team in Edinburgh. Sandra set Senior Canadian records in the 200 and 400 metre freestyle events. At Winnipeg, in 1967, she helped to swim the freestyle relay team to a bronze medal. Sandra swam for Canada in the 1970 World Student Games in Turin, Italy where she won a bronze medal in the 400 metre freestyle (the only Canadian to win a medal).

In 1969, Sandra came to the University of Alberta where she joined the Pandas Swim team. In 1969-1970 and again in 1971-1972 she was named WCIAU Swimmer of the Year. While representing the University at the CIAU championships in 1972, she set records in the 100, 200, and 400 metre freestyle events as well as in the 100 metre backstroke. Her 200 and 400 metre times were also Senior Canadian records. Her outstanding career as an athlete lead to her induction into the Alberta Sports I fall of Fame in 1978 and the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

Sandra left the world of personal competition and joined the ranks of those in the world of coaching. In 1973-1974 she served as the assistant coach of the University of Alberta Pandas Swim Team and then assumed the role of head coach from 1974-1977. In 1974-1975 her team won the CIAU championship and took the silver medal in 1976-1977. After leaving the University, she continued to help build the sport of swimming. From 1977-1981 she served as an assistant coach with the Edmonton Olympian Swim Club. She moved to Regina in 1981 and was immediately recruited to the role of assistant coach of the Regina Optimist Dolphins. After a brief break from the world of swimming, Sandra returned to the pool deck as the assistant coach of the Edmonton Racer's Swim Club (1991-1993) and the Royal Glenora Swim Club (1992-1997). She coached the Swift Current ACT Swim Club in 1998 and 1999.

For a span of 39 years, much of Sandra's life has been devoted to the world of competitive swimming. Her legacy is remarkable and she richly deserves to be recognized for her contributions as an outstanding athlete and as a builder of sport who superbly represented her country and her university.