Former IU Field Hockey standout Bashore-Smedley named to U.S. Olympic team for second time

Former Hoosier field hockey standout Kayla Bashore-Smedley has been named to the 16-player United States Olympic Team for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, USA Field Hockey announced Monday. 

Bashore-Smedley has prior Olympic experience, having competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a member of the U.S. Olympic team that finished eighth.

Seven athletes from that team, including Bashore-Smedley, return to represent the USA this summer.

Team USA will seek its first medal since it won the bronze in 1984.

This year’s team qualified for London by taking the gold medal in the Pan American Games in October.

Bashore-Smedley was unable to play, though,  due to concussion-like symptoms from a head injury she sustained three weeks prior.

In a decorated career at IU, Bashore-Smedley excelled individually and helped the Hoosier program reach unprecedented heights. In 2005, her senior season, she led her team to its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

That season, she was named Big Ten Player of the Year and earned First Team All-American honors.

In total, Bashore-Smedley has competed in 152 international games.

— Ben Simmons