Cavaliers Now

UVA Alum Leah Smith Helps Team USA Win Gold in 4x200 Relay

Smith swam the second leg as the Americans won the 4x200-meter freestyle relay at the FINA World Championships

Matt Newton

Another day, another gold medal for Team USA and the Virginia swimming & diving program.

UVA alum Leah Smith swam the second leg of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay, helping the Americans win gold at the FINA World Championships on Wednesday in Budapest. 

15-year-old Summer McIntosh gave Canada a near two-second lead over the field after the first leg and USA was in a battle for second with Australia after Claire Weinstein's 1:56.71 lead-off leg. 

Leah Smith held her own with a second leg of 1:56.47 and had the Americans just .16 off the lead at the halfway mark. 

Smith's swim left the door wide open for the legendary Kate Ledecky, who proceeded to swim the second-fastest split in history with a 1:53.67 to give USA the lead. Bella Sims anchored for Team USA and closed out the first-place finish with a 1:54.60. 

USA finished with a championship record time of 7:41.45, ahead of Australia (7:43.86) and Canada (7:44.76). This is the eighth time Team USA has taken gold in this event in the last 10 World Championships. The Americans reclaimed the world championship from the Australians, who won gold in 2019, ending USA's streak of four-straight world titles from 2011 to 2017. Smith was part of USA's gold-medal winning 4x200 teams in 2015 and 2017, so this is her third gold medal in the event. 

Alex Walsh also earned a medal for USA's first-place finish in the 4x200, as she swam the leadoff leg for the team in the prelims on Wednesday. 

These are the fourth and fifth medals earned by a current or former UVA swimmer at the 2022 FINA World Championships this week. Smith took bronze in the 400-meter freestyle, Kate Douglass won bronze in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, and Alex Walsh won gold in the 200-meter individual medley. 

Smith is set to swim in one more event in Budapest, as she returns to the pool on Friday to swim in the 800-meter freestyle. Kate Douglass will race on Thursday in the 200-meter breaststroke and UVA freshman Emma Weyant will race in the 400-meter individual medley on Saturday. All of the swimming finals at the 2022 FINA World Championships can be streamed on NBC Sports. 

See the full schedule of events for the 2022 FINA World Championships here. 

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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