Leah Grace Smith[1] (born April 19, 1995) is an American competitionswimmer who specializes infreestyle events. Smith is a member of the 2016 US Women's Olympic Swimming team, and won a bronze medal in the 400 m freestyle and a gold medal in the 4 × 200 m relay at those games.
Smith was born inPittsburgh to a family of many elite athletes. She is a great-granddaughter of World Series champion baseball playerJimmy Smith and great-niece of boxerBilly Conn.[2] Her sister Aileen currently swims forColumbia University.
Smith was a club swimmer at the Jewish Community Center Sailfish and a graduate ofOakland Catholic High School. At one time she held pool records at the University of Pittsburgh Trees Pool for JCC Sailfish in one event and Oakland Catholic in another event. Smith committed to swim for theUniversity of Virginia in 2013.[3] She earned her B.A. degree in May 2017.[1]
Smith attended theUniversity of Virginia, where she competed for theVirginia Cavaliers swimming and diving team.[4] At the 2015 NCAA Championships, she won both the 500-yard freestyle and the 1,650-yard freestyle. Smith repeated as NCAA Champion in both the 500-yard freestyle and the 1650-yard freestyle at the 2016 NCAA Championships.[2][5] Smith was awarded the IMP Award as the top female athlete at the University of Virginia at UVa's Annual Awards Dinner.[6]
Smith represented the United States at the2015 World Aquatics Championships where she won a gold medal in the4 × 200 m freestyle relay.[9] She placed second in the 400 m freestyle event and the 800 m freestyle events at the2016 Olympic Trials. With only 26 spots on the Women's Olympic Swimming Team, second place athletes are not guaranteed to qualify unless and until someone qualifies for more than one event. But in the United States "there has never been an occasion where the top two swimmers in each event, along with the top six swimmers in the 100 m and 200 m free, haven’t made the team",[10] with the recent exception of Ryan Held, who finished sixth in the 100 m free at the 2020 Olympic Trials but was not selected to represent the US in Tokyo due to the 12-spot limit for relay-only swimmers, with Held being designated the 13th relay-only swimmer of priority. On July 3, 2016, Smith was named to the US Olympic Team.[11]
At the 2016 United States Olympic Trials, the U.S. qualifying meet for the Rio Olympics, Smith qualified for the U.S. Olympic team for the first time by finishing second in both the 400- and 800-meter freestyle events behindKatie Ledecky and third in the 200-meter freestyle.
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