Kayla Bashore-Smedley (born February 20, 1983 in Daegu,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Meet the USA Olympic team: Baseball, Softball and Field Hockey
/ref>) is an American

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

defender and midfielder. Now living in Bloomington, Indiana , she was a student of the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

, where she played for the Hoosiers, and was the first player from that university to make the US National Field Hockey team. She represented the USA at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Background

Bashore-Smedley grew up in a small town in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and found her sporting love initially while playing soccer, rather than field hockey. After picking up her first field hockey stick as a high school student, she was recruited by that school's field hockey coach, and soon excelled at her new sport. A graduate of Hamburg Area High School, she went on to study at Indiana University, and played for that institution's team for four years. Still a senior there when she was asked to join the United States National Field Hockey Team, she went through rigorous training with her teammates at their training facility in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

. When her team qualified for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, Bashore-Smedley participated, and was supported by her family, who also made the trip overseas. Although her team did not win any medals that year, they did beat their biggest rival (Argentina) during the 2012 Olympics in London, United Kingdom. Following more than 100 international appearances, Bashore-Smedley then retired in 2013.U.S. National Team Midfielder Kayla Bashore Smedley retires from field hockey.
Colorado Springs, Colorado: USA Field Hockey, March 22, 2013.

International senior competitions

* 2006 – World Cup Qualifier, Rome (4th) * 2006 –

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, Madrid (6th) * 2007 – Pan American Games, Rio de Janeiro (2nd) * 2008 – Summer Olympics (8th)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bashore Smedley, Kayla 1983 births American female field hockey players Field hockey players at the 2007 Pan American Games Field hockey players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Indiana Hoosiers field hockey players Living people Olympic field hockey players of the United States People from Berks County, Pennsylvania Sportspeople from Daegu Field hockey players at the 2011 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in field hockey Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games