{"id":507824,"date":"2022-06-29T11:53:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T18:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=507824"},"modified":"2022-06-29T11:53:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T18:53:55","slug":"a-summer-of-redemption-for-team-usa-veteran-and-distance-star-leah-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/a-summer-of-redemption-for-team-usa-veteran-and-distance-star-leah-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"A Summer of Redemption for Team USA Veteran and Distance Star Leah Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Summer of Redemption for Team USA Veteran and Distance Star Leah Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

The summer of 2021 could\u2019ve been the end of the road for Leah Smith<\/strong> on the global swimming stage.<\/p>\n

The ingredients were all there. Smith won two medals at the Rio Olympics. Five years later, she was four years post-grad and on the outside looking in at the team for the Tokyo Olympics. A combination of tough breaks at Trials in Omaha, the unsuccessful search to find an angle in new events and the unrelenting stream of young talent in the distance freestyle events where \u2013 to begin with \u2013 everyone is chasing the one non-Katie Ledecky<\/strong> spot \u2026 it all conspired against Smith. And it could\u2019ve marked the last we saw of Smith on the international stage.<\/p>\n

But it says something about Smith\u2019s fortitude and character that she came back from that adversity and was as good as ever at the 2022 FINA World Championships.<\/p>\n

Smith was excellent in Budapest. Though she didn\u2019t make the final in the 200 free, an odd event for an otherwise dominant American effort, she won bronze behind Ledecky in the 400 free<\/a>. She was also part of the best swim of the meet, according to FINA<\/a> ranking points, the American women\u2019s 800 free relay, which won gold in 7:41.45<\/a>.<\/p>\n