Kierra Smith to swim 200 breast, not 100, at Pan Am Games for Team Canada (original) (raw)
After a tumultuous Canadian National meet, Kierra Smith will get to contest her signature event in front of the home crowd at this summer’s Pan American Games.
Smith, a finalist at both the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs in the 200 breast last summer, was disqualified in the event at Canadian Nationals, putting a damper on her hopes to swim the event at this summer’s World Championships and Pan Ams.
But in a blog post today, Smith indicated that she will swap events for Pan Ams, switching out the 100 (the event in which she ultimately qualified for Canada’s travel teams) for the 200.
The Pan American Games have special significance to Canadian athletes this year, as the event will be hosted in Toronto.
Smith is currently one of the world’s better 200 breaststrokers, taking 4th at both Pan Pacs and Commonwealths last summer and winning the NCAA title in short course yards a short while ago.
The University of Minnesota junior recounts her and her coaches’ reactions to the disqualification in the blog, which you can read here. She also has a pretty interesting take on the entire roller-coaster ride, and gives her thoughts on this summer’s upcoming international meets. The full blog is definitely worth reading for those interested in getting some more details.
She’ll be returning to competition this weekend at the long course dual meet between Big Ten rivals Minnesota and Wisconsin, happening in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Friday and Saturday.
In This Story
Kierra Smith
About Jared Anderson
Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …