Regan Smith: Olympic gold medalist.

It’s probably not how the Lakeville native envisioned capturing her first Olympic gold medal, but they all count the same in the end. And the 22-year-old’s impressive Olympic haul grew Saturday, when the United States edged China by 12 hundredths of a second to win the 4x100 mixed medley relay with a world record time of 3 minutes, 37.43 seconds as American Torri Huske raced home in the final leg, the freestyle.

The medley relay features all four strokes -- backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. In the mixed edition, each country swims two men and two women.

The U.S. used Ryan Murphy (backstroke), Nic Fink (breaststroke), Gretchen Walsh (butterfly) and Huske (freestyle) Saturday. So, how did Smith medal?

Because she swam the backstroke leg of America’s prelim swim. And anyone who swims a prelim also nets a medal if the relay goes on to medal in the final, whether they swim that final race or not. So when Huske touched the wall first, Smith won her first gold, just like Caleb Dressel won his ninth career gold medal for swimming the fly leg of America’s prelim.

Smith’s near misses were a storyline throughout the Games. She’s one of the best swimmers in the world in both the butterfly and backstroke, yet had been denied gold by a pair of generational swimmers in Australia’s Kaylee McKeown and Canada’s Summer McIntosh.

Smith noted earlier in the week the runner-up finishes would’ve “gutted” her in the past, but she didn’t let that happen this time around.

“To be honest with you, I don’t want to think about what it means to win gold versus silver, because I think when you get so wrapped up in that, then you’re never going to be happy,” she told reporters earlier this week. “When you do win the gold, it’s like, ‘OK, well what’s after that?’ I just want to be proud of myself regardless. And I know that sounds like such a cliché answer, but it’s true.”

Smith went on to say if she did walk away as a gold medalist, “excellent.”

While she didn’t participate in Saturday’s relay final, the gold was still incredibly well earned. Both because she earned her prelim spot by being the country’s top women’s backstroker and due to her contributions to Team USA throughout the past five-plus years.

Smith now has four medals in these Games -- three silvers in her individual events -- and the relay gold, with one more opportunity for more. She’ll surely swim the backstroke leg of the women’s 4x100 medley final at 12:32 p.m. Saturday. Surely, she’d like that relay to also claim the top spot on the podium, to be able to hear the anthem with gold adorning her neck.

But even just a top-three finish in that race would boost Smith’s career medal count to eight, which, at 22 years old, could leave her with an opportunity to push up into some elite company in terms of medal volume should she swim in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles at 26 years old.