{"id":226713,"date":"2016-10-27T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=226713"},"modified":"2016-10-27T07:47:25","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T14:47:25","slug":"qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matthew Barnard, Swimming World College Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a 200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio, Kierra Smith<\/strong> is returning to the University of Minnesota for her senior year. The Kelowna BC native and former NCAA champion is set to be a key point scorer and leader for the Gophers in the 2016-17 season. Swimming World sat down with Smith to discuss her Olympic experience and the upcoming year.<\/p>\n

Swimming World: How was your redshirting experience and preparing for the Olympics?<\/h3>\n

Kierra Smith<\/strong>: I took the year off school which made the year a lot easier mentally because I could just focus on swimming and I didn\u2019t have a lot of other things to stress about, so that made it a lot more fun just getting to swim for the whole year. Physically, it was easier as well\u00a0as I had a lot of time to recover– so my whole year was just swimming and I really really enjoyed that, as the Olympic hype got more exciting as the year went on. Being in Minnesota and seeing the team get ready for NCAAs made me miss being a Gopher a little bit, but it being an Olympic year was really exciting for me knowing that I was trying to make the team for the first time.<\/p>\n

SW: Since making the Canadian team in April how was your pre-Olympic preparation?<\/h3>\n

KS:<\/strong> I thought that once I made the Olympic team that that would be it and I would be really happy about it, but once I made it I wasn\u2019t done. I didn\u2019t really take much time to celebrate. The mindset switched to trying to get on the podium in Rio, and my coaches’ mindset switched too, so no one really celebrated yet. Then the nerves sort of piled on and there was a little more pressure because the Olympics weren\u2019t that far away. The experience went by so fast. I wanted to take it all in. I was lucky that Canada qualified us in April though so there was a lot of time to prepare mentally. Then it became a lot of fun because you could get excited about the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\"Olympic

Photo Courtesy: Scott Grant\/Swimming Canada<\/p><\/div>\n

SW: Many athletes talk about the dramatic post-Olympic come down. Did you find this challenging and how did you deal with it?<\/h3>\n

KS:<\/strong> I was really lucky that I had the Gophers to come back to after the Olympics. I didn\u2019t consider that when I was deciding to take a year off. I knew that I just wanted to make the Olympics last year and that I didn\u2019t want to take away from my final year at NCAAs and Big Tens and giving everything to the Gophers. I knew that it wouldn\u2019t be fair to do that. After the Olympics, I realized that the biggest part was that I had this program to come back to and the team and the coaches and the support staff. It really did help and now I\u2019m focused for my final year of NCAAs to do my best and I want us to win Big Tens. I want to do everything I can to help and lead this team to success.<\/p>\n

SW: How has your transition been rejoining the Gopher squad with some teammates who you\u2019ve never trained and competed with before?<\/h3>\n

KS:<\/strong> It\u2019s a lot of new faces this year that I haven\u2019t been on the team with and it’s been good. I\u2019s different because before when I was on the team it was our fourth year winning Big Tens, but because we didn\u2019t do it last year, everyone if really hungry right now. You can tell on pool deck that everyone wants it really bad and they are ready to make it happen this year.<\/p>\n

\"kierra-smith-minnesota-\"

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

SW: What experiences from over the last year do you think you can bring into the Gopher squad that can help them down the road?<\/h3>\n

KS:<\/strong> I think being on the team that won Big Tens and knowing that it takes everyone to step up at championship events and everyone needs to do their part. I remember one year that we won, we won every single event at Big Tens and everyone had to step up and be confident. I think that we got a little bit comfortable. This year we need to do everything we can to try and get that title back and I\u2019m going to step up in any way that I can. I know it\u2019s going to be hard to win the breaststroke events this year, but I\u2019m going to try to do it. I hope that other people see that I\u2019m not backing down even though the race looks a little bit tougher.<\/p>\n

SW: What are you looking forward to this season?<\/h3>\n

KS:<\/strong> I\u2019m really looking forward to my final NCAAs. Going into my freshman year, I was so wide-eyed and scared to race those girls and I gained a little bit of confidence over the years. This year I am really ready to go in and just enjoy the experience as much as I can– not be as afraid of the competition and really soak in racing as a Minnesota Gopher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Matthew Barnard, Swimming World College Intern After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a 200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio, Kierra Smith is returning to the University of Minnesota for her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4276,"featured_media":143761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,17,10],"tags":[28466,58713],"class_list":["post-226713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","category-commentary","category-world","tag-kierra-smith","tag-matthew-barnard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nQ&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a\u00a0200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio,\u00a0Kierra Smith\u00a0is returning to the University of Minnesota for her senior year.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a\u00a0200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio,\u00a0Kierra Smith\u00a0is returning to the University of Minnesota for her senior year.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-27T16:00:33+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-27T14:47:25+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2516\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Barnard\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Barnard\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew Barnard\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4385e8f5d64311aede5263b24e9943d6\"},\"headline\":\"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-27T16:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-27T14:47:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/\"},\"wordCount\":918,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Kierra Smith\",\"Matthew Barnard\"],\"articleSection\":[\"College\",\"Commentary\",\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/\",\"name\":\"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-27T16:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-27T14:47:25+00:00\",\"description\":\"After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a\u00a0200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio,\u00a0Kierra Smith\u00a0is returning to the University of Minnesota for her senior year.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg\",\"width\":2516,\"height\":1600,\"caption\":\"Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher\/USA Today Sports Images\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4385e8f5d64311aede5263b24e9943d6\",\"name\":\"Matthew Barnard\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9934b3ce41cdb8d37b6c127742e302e1?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9934b3ce41cdb8d37b6c127742e302e1?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Barnard\"},\"description\":\"Matthew Barnard is a BigTen Champion and NCAA All-American diver studying and competing at the University of Minnesota. Born and raised in Australia, he is in his senior year double majoring in journalism and history.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/matthew-barnard\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith","description":"After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a\u00a0200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio,\u00a0Kierra Smith\u00a0is returning to the University of Minnesota for her senior year.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith","og_description":"After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a\u00a0200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio,\u00a0Kierra Smith\u00a0is returning to the University of Minnesota for her senior year.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2016-10-27T16:00:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-27T14:47:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2516,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew Barnard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@swimmingworld","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Barnard","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/"},"author":{"name":"Matthew Barnard","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4385e8f5d64311aede5263b24e9943d6"},"headline":"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith","datePublished":"2016-10-27T16:00:33+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-27T14:47:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/"},"wordCount":918,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg","keywords":["Kierra Smith","Matthew Barnard"],"articleSection":["College","Commentary","World"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/","name":"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg","datePublished":"2016-10-27T16:00:33+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-27T14:47:25+00:00","description":"After an Olympic redshirt season resulting in a\u00a0200 breaststroke final\u00a0in Rio,\u00a0Kierra Smith\u00a0is returning to the University of Minnesota for her senior year.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg","width":2516,"height":1600,"caption":"Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher\/USA Today Sports Images"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/qa-with-canadian-olympian-ncaa-champion-kierra-smith\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Q&A with Canadian Olympian, NCAA Champion Kierra Smith"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4385e8f5d64311aede5263b24e9943d6","name":"Matthew Barnard","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9934b3ce41cdb8d37b6c127742e302e1?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9934b3ce41cdb8d37b6c127742e302e1?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Matthew Barnard"},"description":"Matthew Barnard is a BigTen Champion and NCAA All-American diver studying and competing at the University of Minnesota. Born and raised in Australia, he is in his senior year double majoring in journalism and history.","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/matthew-barnard\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher\/USA Today Sports Images","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pan-am-games-swimming-2015-0174.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-WYF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4276"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}