{"id":474888,"date":"2021-06-05T09:44:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T16:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=474888"},"modified":"2021-06-05T09:44:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T16:44:25","slug":"leah-smith-approaches-olympic-trials-weighing-elite-400-im-special-1500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/leah-smith-approaches-olympic-trials-weighing-elite-400-im-special-1500\/","title":{"rendered":"Leah Smith Approaches Olympic Trials Weighing Elite 400 IM, \u2018Special\u2019 1500"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Leah Smith Approaches Olympic Trials Weighing Elite 400 IM, \u2018Special\u2019 1500<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Leah Smith\u2019s<\/strong> wait for her third Olympic Trials has been longer than she\u2019d expected. But as the countdown ticks into its final days, the two-time Olympic medalist carries an enviable challenge into Omaha.<\/p>\n<p>At her last two Trials, Smith\u2019s program was straightforward. She swam the women\u2019s 200 free, 400 free and 800 free in Omaha five years ago, qualifying for Rio in the latter two events and for the 800 free relay with a third-place finish in the 200. She yielded a bronze medal in the 400 in Rio, gold in the relay and sixth in the 800.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usaswimming.org\/news\/2019\/03\/20\/2020-u.s.-olympic-team-trials---swimming-event-order\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">racing slate in 2021<\/a> was already going to be complicated, in the best possible way, with the addition of the 1500 to the women\u2019s events. But last week, Smith laid down a time of 4:37.39 in the 400 individual medley at the Jim Click Team Elite Intrasquad meet, a time worthy of serious Tokyo consideration.<\/p>\n<p>So Smith faces what she called, in a conversation with <em>Swimming World<\/em> this week, \u201cthe potential for a crunch-time decision that I\u2019ll have to make at the meet.\u201d It\u2019s a good problem to have, one the 26-year-old swimmer will sort through as her long-awaited Trials shot approaches.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_472342\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-472342\" data-attachment-id=\"472342\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/leah-smith-approaches-olympic-trials-weighing-elite-400-im-special-1500\/leah-smith-75\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2000,1500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Peter H. Bick&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;E-M1X&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;leah-smith-&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1620917232&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Peter H. Bick&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;400&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;2500&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.002&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;leah-smith-&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"leah-smith- TYR Pro Indy 2021 1143\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;6-3-21&lt;br \/&gt;\nleah-smith- 2021, 400 Free, Day 2 prelims, Smith Leah, TYR Pro Indy&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Leah Smith; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-472342\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143.jpg\" alt=\"leah-smith-\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-450x338.jpg 450w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/leah-smith-TYR-Pro-Indy-2021-1143-533x400.jpg 533w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-472342\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leah Smith; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWith it being pushed back a year and I think a lot of things being canceled, there was no real guarantee that Trials or the Olympics would happen,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI think it just feels pretty crazy now. I\u2019m definitely really looking forward to it and very thankful that we even get to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith will have a busy start to the meet. Luckily, the 400 IM decision stands by itself, with prelims and finals on the first day of competition Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Smith\u2019s time is not to be dismissed in the jockeying for Tokyo. <strong>Melanie Margalis<\/strong> is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/2021-trials-vision-melanie-margalis-leading-slew-of-contenders-in-400-im\/\">the prohibitive favorite<\/a>, with a best time of 4:32.35. But Smith\u2019s 4:37.39 is fifth among Americans since the start of 2019. Less than two seconds separate Smith from second in that ranking, <strong>Emma Weyant<\/strong> at 4:35.47. (That\u2019s excepting <strong>Ella Eastin,<\/strong> who had gone 4:37.18 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-champion-ella-eastin-announces-retirement-after-dysautonomia-diagnosis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">but recently retired<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The 400 IM is one of the most open women\u2019s races in Omaha. Both Rio qualifiers \u2013 silver medalist <strong>Maya DiRado<\/strong> and sixth-place <strong>Elizabeth Beisel<\/strong> \u2013 have retired. Smith has never swum the 400 IM at Trials, and her only senior international competition in the event was at the 2017 World Championships, where she finished sixth.<\/p>\n<p>The 400 IM compounds a busy early schedule. The 400 free prelims and finals are Monday. Tuesday brings the prelims double of the 200 free and 1500, with the 200 free semifinals at night. Wednesday presents a 200 free\/1500 finals double before a merciful off day Thursday and two days of the 800.<\/p>\n<p>Both of the Tuesday\/Wednesday options have merits. A spot on the 800 free relay is an obvious carrot in the 200 free. But the 1500 holds special significance for Smith, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/tokyo-vision-katie-ledecky-makes-inaugural-1500-freestyle-for-women-a-coronation\/\">a long overdue balancing of events between men\u2019s and women\u2019s competition<\/a> and the ultimate test for one of the world\u2019s premier distance specialists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that it will be really special to see that for the first time,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAnd I think that it\u2019s definitely kind of shocking that there hasn\u2019t been a 1500. I\u2019ve spent my almost my entire life thinking that I didn\u2019t want to do the 1500 because I couldn\u2019t qualify for the Olympics in it. I\u2019m happy that history will be made and hopefully a new generation of swimmers will want to swim that event because now they can dream of it on the biggest stage possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whichever events end up on her program, Smith will be ready. She\u2019s not resting on the laurels of her past stature at a cutthroat meet like Trials. She\u2019s been happy with how she\u2019s performed at Pro Swim Series stops, where the adjustments to new COVID-19 protocols and the realities of a less raucous arena will be valuable. She counts her time<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/in-first-season-with-tokyo-leah-smith-enjoys-being-part-of-building-something\/\"> in the International Swimming League bubble in Budapest<\/a> as a member of the Tokyo Frog Kings as valuable preparation.<\/p>\n<p>Smith is also a more poised swimmer than five years ago, thanks to the raft of international experience she\u2019s accumulated since. She knows what it\u2019s like to enter meets with expectations, and she\u2019s flourished under those circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s ready to make Omaha the next entry on that list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I have more experience and more confidence in myself than I had in 2012 and 2016,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m definitely looking forward to being able to use that to my advantage at Trials and just have a fun meet where I\u2019m just excited to race and happy to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leah Smith Approaches Olympic Trials Weighing Elite 400 IM, \u2018Special\u2019 1500 Leah Smith\u2019s wait for her third Olympic Trials has been longer than she\u2019d expected. But as the countdown ticks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":472671,"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":[3,122077,7],"tags":[122875,122266,62445,72224,25513,26699,25178,125766,61109,7419,57640],"class_list":["post-474888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-americas","category-usa","tag-2021-olympic-trials","tag-2021-olympics","tag-emma-weyant","tag-isl","tag-leah-smith","tag-maya-dirado","tag-melanie-margalis","tag-tokyo-frog-kings","tag-tokyo-olympic-games","tag-tokyo-olympics","tag-u-s-olympic-trials"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Leah Smith Approaches Olympic Trials Weighing 400 IM, \u2018Special\u2019 1,500<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Leah Smith\u2019s wait for her third Olympic Trials has been longer than she\u2019d expected. 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