Wise Beyond Her Years, Teenager Leah Hayes Is Already a Headliner For Team USA
Leah Hayes was diagnosed with alopecia at age 6, leading to near complete hair loss. She turned to swimming, claiming the sport has boosted her confidence. With a bronze medal in the 200 IM from last year’s World Championships, Hayes is now focused on the U.S. Trials later this month for a chance to compete at Worlds in Fukuoka, July 18-25. Next, she’ll be aspiring to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games at age 18.
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Leah Hayes returned from Budapest last summer a much smarter swimmer.
There was the bronze medal in the women’s 200-meter individual medley at the tender age of 16, sure. But just as valuable was time spent around her fellow U.S. national teamers. Rooming with Olympian Bella Sims…sharing a practice pool with some of her idols in training camp in Croatia…the experience of being on Team USA—all of that helped open Hayes’ eyes.
Age is just a number, the U.S. women’s program proved at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 with a roster full of teenagers. Hayes is bidding to continue that trend, aspiring to qualify for the Paris Games at age 18, in between her high school graduation and enrolling at the University of Virginia.
The national team dynamic she was immersed in has solidified her conviction that it’s possible.
“I really enjoyed the team and the atmosphere of it all,” Hayes said recently. “I think having that would be a really good steppingstone if I do make the Olympics and I do have the experience to look back on, that I have competed on the international stage and I have done this before, and that this is just another version of that.”
Hayes will try to add to that experience this summer. She’s one of a slew of contestants in a deep U.S. talent pool, particularly in the IMs and a crowded battle for the 800 freestyle relay. But she’s been at the forefront of her age group for years, with a litany of records to prove it. With that pedigree, more meets to grow and poise beyond her years, Hayes is a candidate to make the jump from prospect to star.
A SUMMER TO REMEMBER
Hayes’ emergence in international competition may have seemed ahead of schedule, but it certainly wasn’t out of the blue. The actual ordeal of the 2022 World Team Trials, though, unfolded less according to plan.
The native of Sugar Grove, Ill., has been on the national radar for years, setting her first national age group records in the 10-and-11-year-old bracket, of which three long-course meters marks endure. In 2022, she added a 15-16 NAG (and world junior record) in the 200 IM in Budapest. Her feature as “SportsKid of the Year” by Sports Illustrated in 2018 raised her profile, and her eventual addition to the storied UVA medley legacy is a no-brainer for athlete and school.
Carrying that sense of expectations to major meets is something Hayes prefers, less a source of pressure than of self-confidence.
“Having that experience growing up gave me confidence when entering meets at a national level,” she said. “It kind of got my name out there. I think it really helped me go into a competition with the right mindset.”
Her self-belief has come in handy at key moments. Swimming for the Fox Valley Park District Riptides, coached by Nancy Hooper, Hayes performed well at Olympic Trials in 2021, finishing 10th in the 200 IM and 11th in the 400 IM. A year later, she appeared to have cracked a daunting lineup in the 400 IM at Trials, setting the top time in prelims and leading the final through 300 meters. She ran out of gas, though, fading to finish 4.5 seconds behind Katie Grimes and three seconds in arrears of Emma Weyant for the second spot on Team USA for a trip to Budapest.
Any disappointment was erased by the 200 IM final two nights later, though not without consternation. Hayes finished second in morning prelims, but was originally disqualified, only to see it overturned. She swam a controlled final, finishing second to Alex Walsh’s U.S. Open record and comfortably ahead of Beata Nelson for a time of 2:09.99 and her first senior international trip.
Hayes draws a direct line between her one-to-watch stature since before her teen years and her resilience in tough moments like Trials. Both commodities ratcheted up once she got the feel of a national team camp. It took a little while for starstruck feelings to fade, though she said it helped when veterans like Katie Ledecky, Lilly King and Annie Lazor reached out ahead of camp with introductions.
“There was definitely some moments where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m standing next to a world record holder or an Olympic champion,’” Hayes said. “And like, ‘I’m on a team with them. We’re teammates.’ It took a hot minute to adjust to that. It was just such a cool experience.”
GROWING IN CONFIDENCE
Talking to Hayes about swimming doesn’t feel like a usual conversation with a teenager, even the highest achieving of ones. She exudes confidence and poise behind her years, earned in and out of the pool.
Photo Courtesy: Photo Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
In the water, she seems assured in the next steps toward Paris. Her focus will be on the IMs, deep though they are, and the 200 free. (She swam the 100 free at Olympic Trials in 2021, finishing 35th). She might expand her repertoire to offer alternatives—the 200 breaststroke is one event where she just landed a Trials cut, and she has a long-ago NAG in breaststroke—but most of her training is to deepen proficiency in the core events.
Her performance at World Trials in 2022 came while nursing a stress fracture in her foot. Though not definite, she’s pretty sure it was caused by a new weightlifting regimen and lifeguarding, aspects she’s adjusted to feel confident there’s no risk of recurrence.
When it comes to the IM, Hayes tries to put the blinders on. The U.S. has been wildly successful, with the maximum of eight medals from six individuals in the women’s 200 and 400 IM at the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Worlds. Against that backdrop, Hayes understands that watching the field is of only so much use. Instead, she’s focused on her improvement.
“I think there’s a balance between it,” she said. “I’ve had to take a step back and look at how I’m improving versus how my competitors are improving. It can be a little stressful to look at my competitors when our training is so different. So I’ve just taken to looking at how I’m performing and how I’m improving.”
Being comfortable in her own skin is a skill Hayes has worked hard to cultivate. She was diagnosed with alopecia at age 6, leading to near complete hair loss. The pool was one of the spaces she found most welcoming—not having hair (thus not having to wear a cap) was an edge, but the pool was also an environment where the amount of hair she had didn’t matter. It informed her 2015 decision to stop wearing wigs to school in the name of personal authenticity, since they, as she wrote in a social media post marking the anniversary of her decision, made her feel “like I wasn’t expressing who I truly was.” She credits swimming with “nudging me out of my shell” in that regard.
“I just went bald to swim practice at a young age, and it helped me realize that nobody cared whether I had hair or I didn’t,” she said. “And it really boosted my confidence and led me toward sharing with the rest of my school and the rest of my friends and family that I had alopecia. I think swimming continues to teach me things about myself, and it has already taught me so many life lessons.”
Hayes is eloquent about what those lessons are. She marvels at the collection of talent that a swim team can be—people from different places and viewpoints coming together from a vast area to train, learn and compete together—as proof of what the sport has done for her. The pool is a meritocratic environment where trivial information like how much hair you might have means nothing when you race.
“Not many people are concerned about your background,” she said. “It’s more or less how fast you can swim. It’s limitless.”
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