IU Olympian: Kayla Bashore-Smedley

Kayla Bashore-Smedley is competing at the Olympics for the second time as a member of the U.S. Olympic Field Hockey Team. In the 2008 Olympics, the U.S. Women’s team finished in 8th place. Bashore-Smedley is the only Big Ten player representing the U.S. in field hockey in London. She has been competing with the U.S. National Team since 2006.

Women’s field hockey competition begins with a preliminary phase: the 12 teams are divided into two pools of six, and each team plays every other in their pool. The top two teams in each pool qualify for the semi-finals, the winners of which go head-to-head for the gold. The other teams in the two groups play each other to determine final placings.

In the preliminary phase, teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. In the knockout matches, ties are resolved by extra time (two 7½-minute periods), with a golden goal – the first goal scored – winning the match. If still tied after this time, the match is decided by a shoot-out competition of five attempts per team. Classification and Semifinal Rounds start on Wednesday, Aug. 8 and continue on Aug. 10 with bronze medal and gold medal matches.

View the schedules and profiles of the other Olympic athletes that either play for or have graduated from IU.