UVA swimming senior Leah Smith won Olympic gold with the United States 4×200-meter freestyle relay Wednesday night (Aug. 10) at the Rio Olympics.
Smith (Pittsburgh, Pa.) swam the second leg of the American relay, which also included Allison Schmitt leading off, Maya DiRado in the third leg and anchor Katie Ledecky. The U.S. won in a time of 7:43.03, followed by Australia (7:44.87) and Canada (7:45.39). Smith’s second leg split was 1:56.69.
This is Smith’s second medal of the Rio Olympics after she earned bronze in the 400m freestyle on Sunday. She is the first female Cavalier swimmer to earn two Olympic medals and the second overall, joining Ed Moses in 2000 (gold with 4x100m medley relay, silver in 100m breaststroke).
With Smith’s two medals in Rio, the University of Virginia now has 25 overall Olympic medals across all sports, including 15 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze medals.
Smith now has three senior international gold medals. She also won gold with the American 4x200m free relay at the 2015 FINA World Championships and the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships.
At Virginia, Smith is a four-time NCAA Champion, winning the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyle events in both 2015 and 2016. She is an 11-time All-American and 10-time ACC Champion.
Smith will be back in action Thursday (Aug. 11) in the prelims of the 800m freestyle.
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