Two Virginia swimmers earned medals for Team USA on the first night of swimming competition at the FINA World Championships in Budapest on Saturday. UVA alum Leah Smith took bronze in the 400-meter freestyle and junior Kate Douglass won bronze as part of USA's 4x100-meter relay team.
Leah Smith, who was also named a team captain for Team USA, touched in 4:02.08 in the 400-meter freestyle, just eight one-hundredths of a second ahead of fourth-place finisher Lani Pallister of Australia. American superstar Katie Ledecky reclaimed her title in the event, winning gold with a time of 3:58.34 to break her own Championship record, while Canadian fifteen-year-old Summer McIntosh nearly kept up with Ledecky, finishing in 3:59.39 to become the fourth swimmer in history to swim the 400-meter freestyle in less than four minutes. This is Leah Smith's third consecutive time medaling in this event at the FINA World Championships, as she took silver in 2017 and bronze in 2019.
Kate Douglass swam the third leg of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay for Team USA, clocking a time of 53.61 to help the Americans earn the bronze medal with a time of 3:32.58. Australia won gold, finishing in 3:30.95 and Canada took silver in 3:32.15.
Saturday's competition also included the heats and semifinals for the women's 200-meter individual medley. Virginia's Alex Walsh won the semifinal heat with a time of 2:08.74 and will be joined in the middle lanes in the final by American teammate Leah Hayes, who finished second in the semis in 2:09.82. Walsh will race for gold in the 200-meter individual medley in the final on Sunday at approximately 1:43pm Eastern time. That race can be streamed on NBC Sports.
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