Name: Leanne Smith
Sport: Swimming
Event(s): 50-meter Freestyle, 50-meter Butterfly, 50-meter Breaststroke, 100-meter Freestyle, 150-meter Individual Medley
Classification: S4, SB4, SM4
Height: 5-2
DOB: 5/8/1988
Birthplace: Beverly, Mass.
Hometown: Salem, Mass.
High School: Beverly High school (Beverly, Mass.) '07
College: Southern New Hampshire University, Sports Management
Paralympic Experience
- One-time Paralympian (2020); One-time Paralympic medalist (1 silver)
- Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, silver (100-meter freestyle), 5th (150-meter Individual Medley), 6th (50-meter backstroke), 5th (50-meter breaststroke)
World Championship Experience
- Most recent: 2022 - GOLD (150-meter individual medley, 50-meter breaststroke, mixed 4x50-meter medley relay 20pts, 50-meter backstroke, 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle)
- Years of Participation: 2017, 2019, 2022
- Medals: 11 (10 gold, 1 silver)
- Gold – 2019 (150-meter individual medley, 100-meter freestyle, 50-meter breaststroke); 2022 (150-meter individual medley, 100-meter breaststroke, mixed 4x50-meter medley relay 20pts, 50-meter backstroke, 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle)
- Silver – 2019 (50-meter backstroke)
Personal:
In 2010, Smith experienced a sudden onset of facial paralysis and numbness, as well as tingling and weakness on her left side...She spent the next five months in the hospital as doctors tried to figure out the cause of her symptoms...She was diagnosed with a rare neurological muscle disease called dystonia in January 2012...She began swimming in 2013 as part of an aquatic rehabilitation session recommended by her physiotherapist...In August 2014, she encountered a setback when she began experiencing seizures and was hospitalized for two months...In 2017, as a resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she set the American, Pan Am and world record in the S4 50-meter butterfly at the 2017 U.S. Paralympic Swimming World Championships Trials...Daughter of Mark and Kay Smith...Has five brothers: Ryan, Eric, Matthew, William and Bobby...Was named to the U.S. Women’s Sled Hockey developmental team in 2015.
