RIO DE JANEIRO — Leah Smith felt the nerves on Sunday at the Olympic Games.
She qualified for the the 400-meter freestyle final in the preliminary round in the afternoon, but was jittery.
So, in the hours before the final Sunday night, Smith made some calls.
“I talked to a few friends back home,” Smith said. “One of my best friends, Katie McLaughlin, missed making the team in the 200 [butterfly]. She’s kind of like my buddy and everything, so I asked for some advice. She just said I need to take in the experience, and just getting there was such an accomplishment.”
Smith calmed those nerves in the final Sunday night at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, finishing with a time of 4:01.92 for a bronze medal — her first medal in her first Olympics.
Smith is no stranger to international competition. She had plenty of exposure as a student at Oakland Catholic High School and collegiately at Virginia. This was different.
“I went to Worlds and I thought that would prepare me, and it did, but nothing compares to this,” Smith said. “It’s unlike any other meet I’ve ever experienced. But it’s a blast and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”
In her heat in the preliminaries, Smith was locked in a duel with Canada’s Brittany Maclean and Great Britain’s Jazz Carlin — Smith edged out Maclean by .04 seconds for second place.
In the final, it was again a race for second or third.
One lane down from Smith was Olympic teammate, Katie Ledecky. The 19-year-old shattered an Olympic record in the prelims with a time of 3:58.71 — nearly five seconds better than the second-place finisher in her heat.
Ledecky jumped out to the lead in the final and never looked back, finishing with a time of 3:56.46 to set a new world record.
Carlin finished in second at 4:01.23.
The result was totally expected. Ledecky has dominated the longer freestyle events since winning gold in the 800 at the London Olympics as a 15-year-old. The only drama was whether she’d take the world record even lower.
“I mean, so impressed,” Smith said of Ledecky. “I could hear the crowd cheering for her the whole time, so it was amazing.”
Smith, meanwhile, began the race in third for the first 50 meters, before falling to fourth for the next 100. At the 200-meter mark, she was tied with Maclean for third before taking control of the bronze spot.
With Maclean and Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas close behind, Smith touched the wall to clinch her first Olympic medal. Her parents, three siblings, Virginia coach and two Virginia teammates were all watching.
“I got to look up in the stands at my family and they’re so, so excited,” Smith said.
This won’t be her only chance at a medal in these Olympics. Smith will compete in the 800-meter freestyle with preliminaries Thursday. She was the ACC champion of the event at Virginia last season.
She has the opportunity to add to her new medal collection — with her nerves in check.
“I think I need to just stick with my strategy of trusting my race plan and trusting my coach’s plan for me,” Smith said. “I think that’s really it. For me, I’m the type of swimmer that needs to be having fun behind the blocks. I need to smile. So I think just not getting too tense before my race is going to help a lot.”
Akshay Mirchandani is reporting from the Rio Olympics for the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism.
First Published: August 7, 2016, 7:51 p.m.
Updated: August 8, 2016, 3:19 a.m.