Leah Hayes Training More 200 Free With Sights Set on 4x200 Relay Next Summer

Leah Hayes is slated to make her international relay debut for the U.S. at the World Junior Championships next week, which could be a precursor for her aspirations at the senior level next summer.

The 17-year-old IM specialist has been training more 200 freestyle recently with her sights set on making the 4×200 free relay at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. Hayes barely missed the roster for this year’s World Championships with a 3rd-place finish in the 400 IM (4:38.45) and 4th-place finish in the 200 IM (2:10.42) after winning bronze in the 200 IM at the 2022 World Championships in a then-world junior record of 2:08.91.

“I am training heavily for the 200 free, not as heavily as the IMs,” Hayes said in a recent World Aquatics feature. “My training is mainly IM but we definitely throw a lot of freestyle in there. I am really excited to be on the 4×2. This will be my first international relay but I am hoping with more training and more time I can snag a spot on the relay next year at Olympic Trials.”

Hayes’ best 200 free time is a 1:58.27 from April’s Pro Swim Series stop in her home state of Illinois. She couldn’t quite replicate that mark at U.S. Nationals a couple months later with a 1:58.86, so World Juniors should serve as a benchmark for her post-meet progress. It took sub-1:57 to make the top 6 in the 200 free at U.S. Nationals this year, so she’ll likely need to drop another couple seconds to make the squad in that event.

“After Nationals, I decided to go to Florida for a few days for a fresh restart and just relax a little bit,” said Hayes, who is slated to begin her collegiate career at Virginia in the fall of 2024. “I wasn’t too happy with my performance (at Nationals) so my coach and I went back to the drawing board and made some new plans and things have been going really well.”

Individually, Hayes is a heavy favorite at Junior Worlds in both the 200 IM and 400 IM while she’s seeded 3rd in the 200 free behind Canada’s Ella Jansen and Israel’s Daria Golovaty.

On relays, she’ll link up with No. 6 seed Addison Sauickie (1:58.66) to try to take down the Australian 4×200 free relay led by No. 4 seed Amelia Weber (1:58.42) and No. 7 seed Hannah Casey (1:59.11). In the 4×100 free relay, Hayes is expected to join Anna Moesch (54.36) and Erika Pelaez (54.98) against the Australian quartet headlined by Olivia Wunsch (54.05) and Milla Jansen (54.54).

“I find that I am usually able to give more in relays when I am swimming not only for myself but my teammates and my team,” Hayes said. “When there is a bigger meaning to the race and more people depend on you, I find I have even more to give. With these relays coming up, I am super excited to potentially be a part of them and to represent the United States with a relay.”

Overall, Hayes heads into World Juniors brimming with confidence as the only competitor who has already claimed an individual Worlds medal at the senior level.

“As a Christian, I heavily believe in God’s plan,” Hayes said. “With every step of the way, there’s things that I may not understand at the time but later it will all come together. With the World Championships, I felt there were many things that prepared me well that I felt God had put into my plan to help prepare me for the World Championships and that’s why I had so much confidence going into that.

“So I feel like I am meant to be at the World Juniors with not qualifying for Worlds so I am pretty confident with the more training I had this past few weeks and months I am definitely a little more confident going into World Juniors,” she added.