Clark Smith Scratches Texas Invite With Heart Condition

2017 TEXAS INVITATIONAL

• Live Results
• Psych Sheets
• Meet Central
• NCAA Qualifying
• Hosted by Texas (Austin, Texas)
• 25 Yards
• Invite Format

US National Team member Clark Smith has withdrawn from the remainder of the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational this weekend with a health condition.

Smith has had reoccuring Atrial Fibrilation for the past 4 years, and had an episode on Sunday and Monday of this week that lasted almost a full day. Smith says that was concerning, because there is a risk of having a stroke if you’re left into it long enough. He says that he had to go to the emergency room to have his heart shocked back into rhythm.

“I had been tapering for this meet and was gunning for some best times so I went ahead and decided to swim anyway,” Smith said. “During the 500 this morning, the A-fib came back toward the end of the race and a bit afterwards. The trainer on deck thought it probably wasn’t safe to swim tonight considering I’d be going harder than the morning swim.”

Smith said that his doctors thought it would be best for him to sit out the rest of the meet to give his new medicine time to kick in, which he said was “a bit of a disappointment.”

Smith swam in the prelims of the 500 free, where he was the top qualifier in 4:14.40. Smith was scheduled to swim the 200 free and 1650 free at the rest of the meet.

On Thursday evening, Smith’s American and U.S. Open Records in the 500 free, set at last year’s NCAA Championship meet, was broken by Zane Grothe at U.S. Winter Nationals.

“I’m glad Zane was able to chip away at the record tonight, it needed to go down,” Smith said of Grothe’s swim. When Smith broke the record last year, he said the record was soft, and that it still was even after he broke it.

Leah Smith (no relation) also scratched Thursday’s 500 free finals – she was the top seed in the women’s race. Her representatives didn’t have any information on the reasons for her withdrawal.