Jaclyn Smith watched the second plane crash into the World Trade Center just after she woke up on Sept. 11, 2001.
Just out of the hospital and recovering from a kidney infection, Smith, then 8, watched the tragedy unfold with her father, Jim, in their Williston Park home before he and her mother, Annmarie, then New York City police officers, were called in to help, she said.
“That was the first time I ever saw my dad cry,” said Jaclyn Smith, now 23. “That was a big thing for me because him being a cop, I always thought that he was invincible.”
While 9/11 has remained a somber day for the Smiths, the tone could take a happier turn this year, the 15th anniversary of the attacks, as Smith, now an elite rower, could be racing for a gold medal that day at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“I want to be able to give that day a different meaning for my family,” she said.
The Paralympics will be her fourth major international competition in as many years, following her appearances at the world rowing championships in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Legally blind and born with ocular albinism, meaning parts of her eyes lack the pigment that provide sight, Smith started rowing in her freshman year at Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Syosset after growing up playing several sports in local leagues, such as the Williston Park Little League and the Catholic Youth Organization at the Church of St. Aidan.
She became the crew captain at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, where she has been an assistant rowing coach since graduating in 2011, Jim Smith said. She tried out for the national paralympic rowing team in 2012 and helped take the team to silver medals at the past two world championships.
No matter the sport, Jaclyn Smith’s determination and strong sense of competition always made up for her lack of sight, even when her coaches underestimated her or had to figure out new ways to teach skills to her, she said.
“I might not have been able to see a ball but I was definitely the fastest and the most determined,” she said.
Growing up in Williston Park youth leagues introduced Jaclyn Smith to many teammates and “gave her the drive to accomplish and master the sports,” Jim Smith said.
Jaclyn Smith also worked as an attendant at the Williston Park pool throughout college, and Jim is a former chief of the Williston Park Fire Department, he said.
“It’s a very, very small town, everyone knows everyone there, and I think that the whole town in general just influenced me as a kid growing up because everyone rallies behind everyone,” she said.
Smith got a master’s degree in education from Sacred Heart in May and is starting a second master’s program in guidance at Fairfield University in Connecticut to pursue a career as a guidance counselor, she said.
She chose that career after wanting to follow in her parents’ footsteps as a police officer. Her uncle and grandfather also served on the New York City force, she said. Their role in the aftermath of 9/11 had a big impact on her life, she said.
“Growing up the daughter of two police officers, I definitely had a sense of what it meant for mom and dad to go out every day and put their lives on the line to protect our city,” Smith said.
Annmarie Smith was on duty when the planes hit the World Trade Center towers, and Jim was called in within hours of the attack, he said.
They both worked 12-hour shifts for weeks, with Jim on his regular evidence collection beat and Annmarie stationed for a month at a bereavement center at a downtown Manhattan pier, he said.
They would leave for work and come home when Jaclyn and her three siblings were asleep, so the children didn’t see their parents for nearly two weeks, Jaclyn and Jim Smith said.
Friends and and relatives helped watch the children in the following days as Jim and Annmarie Smith balanced the demands of their jobs with family obligations and funerals for about a dozen fellow police officers and firefighters who died after the attacks, Jim Smith said.
“We got through it and hopefully won’t have to go through it again, but you never know,” he said.
Jaclyn Smith could very well be racing for Paralympic gold on this year’s 9/11 anniversary.
The U.S. rowing team is in a “good position” to beat Britain, whose crew hasn’t lost a race since 2009, after finishing a fraction of a second behind the British at last year’s world championship in France, she said.
Smith said she hopes the race will bring the country and her family together as the events of 9/11 have in the years since the attacks.
“It would turn the day into a very happy occasion and event, and more so for my daughter, all her struggles through life and things like that,” Jim Smith said.
The Paralympic Games will be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network starting Sept. 7 and streamed live on TeamUSA.org.
