INDIANAPOLIS — Kira Smith is allergic to chicken.
She’s different than most.
It’s May 13. Smith is upstairs inside the Warren Central gym doing stretches. She’s alone. The rest of her track and field teammates are doing their exercises on the gym’s main floor.
Today is a recovery practice. The usual regimen after a meet. It’s optional, but Smith doesn’t miss these. A day earlier at the Marion County Championships, Smith posted a 6-foot-1 leap in high jump. It’s the second-best jump in the world among high school athletes.
“I would’ve let her go for 6-2 if I didn’t have to sleep next to the track coach,” joked Steve Smith, Kira’s father and Warren Central’s jump coach, as he stood upstairs. Kira won the 300 hurdles with a personal best time of 44.58 at county. Steve’s wife, Le’gretta, is the head coach of the Warriors’ track and field team and trains Kira in hurdles. Kira will participate in the 300 hurdles and high jump at state Friday.
Kira completes her stretches and approaches “coach” Smith. “Mom” and “Dad” rarely come out of Kira’s mouth at practice. Steve gives Kira the green light to go downstairs and get ready.
Kira has a softball game in roughly three hours. And the struggling Warriors desperately need their best player. And Kira needs softball. There’s freedom in the dugout. Absent is the pressure that comes with being the coach’s daughter.
But before she changes out of her t-shirt and sweatpants into her softball attire, Kira has a stop to make.
“I’m going to go hang out with my friends,” she says, referencing her track teammates, as she makes her way downstairs.
An intense food allergy gave her the willpower needed to reach the top of high jump and softball. Once Kira got there, intentionality in being “just one of the girls” and a “regular” high schooler became a priority. The pursuit of normalcy fuels the 16-year-old on her path to prestige.
Kira Smith balances softball and track with allergy struggles
Track practices are structured around high jump. Le’gretta understands it takes precedence over hurdles. Hurdle techniques and high jump drills occur on the same day. If Kira needs to run, high jump happens later in the week. It’s a “delicate balance,” Smith said, that requires the “right hand to know what the left is doing.”
Track meets usually took place on Tuesday, Thursday and some Saturdays during the season. Softball games were held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Kira goes to track practice at 2:30, 30 minutes earlier than the normal start time, and finishes by 4:15 on softball game days. She doesn’t attend softball practice or games on the day of track meets. Kira arrives home on meet and softball game days at about 9:30 p.m. Some nights, Gatorade is dinner.
Each spring day consists of rounding bases or leaping over crossbars. Communication with coaches and time management are the biggest challenges for Kira during this time.
“Sometimes carrying some of the pressure, it’s a lot,” Kira said. “But I just have to stay grounded and remind myself that I am good, I’ve been working hard and I’ve been working for these moments, and try to talk to my teammates to make sure we’re all on the same page, and just to help take some of that pressure off.”
There’s little time to watch her favorite TV show, Money Heist, crochet or relish in her library of books. Spring comes with minimal room for leisure. Homework gets done when Kira doesn’t have a softball game, in between practice or during dedicated work time in class.
Steve may encourage Kira to sleep in or take a day off from school during the spring. But grades are too important for the 4.042 GPA student. And she can’t afford to miss culinary class.
Kira is allergic to eat peanuts, raw eggs, raw flour, raw wheat, chicken and all fish except squid. Kira carries an EpiPen at all times. Culinary class provides her space to explore meals that fit her diet, such as Mediterranean salads, various soups or empanadas. Steaks are Kira’s go-to, which will make Kira an “expensive date,” her doctor says.
“I’m very indecisive, so when it comes to making decisions, it can get a little tricky, like even when it just comes to what I want to eat for dinner,” Kira said. “Picking stuff is hard, so I have to make sure that I’m doing what’s best for me and my future, and that I know my goals and what I’m working towards.”
Added Le’gretta: “She loved some Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane’s, but she’s OK with (her allergies). She doesn’t ask ‘Why me?’ and it translates to sport because it helps her pay more attention to detail, knowing that you can’t just go anywhere and just eat anything. You have to ask questions.”
‘I sometimes downplay what I’ve done to be a high schooler’
It’s May 4. Kira is outside doing sprints with track and softball teammate Gabi Hilliard, withstanding the rain and heavy winds, while the rest of the team are under the bleachers. Practice moves inside, where Kira is among the first to grab the wickets and high jump landing mat out the equipment room.
In eight days, Kira will record the second highest jump in the world. But for Kira, status and stardom don’t excuse her from service.
Kira lines up about 50 feet from the crossbar, exhales and begins her curved run to the mat. Bar cleared. Kira, with an impassive face, looks at “coach” for feedback. “Dad” says a few words, all to which Kira nods her head in agreement. She’s “coachable,” Le’gretta boasts.
Kira does the same thing four more times. Exhale. Run. Clear. “It can get boring,” Steve admits. But Kira finds a way to fall more and more in love with it. As she elevates a fifth time, Kira relaxes her hands — a tendency that causes trouble in softball.
When Kira does a curl hop, the outfielder will sometime let go of the ball as she’s about to throw it. It’s her body’s natural reaction after three years of doing high jump. But in the moment, her mind is fully focused on softball.
Steve likened Kira to Deion Sanders, who played in the Super Bowl and World Series. “Once one sport is done, she’s totally immersed in the other,” he said.
But once both are done, she’s back to being a kid.
“I don’t know if I’d say I feel lonely at the top because I like to perform and then let myself be a high schooler,” Kira said. “I sometimes downplay what I’ve done as a high schooler. I’m very proud of myself, but when I’m with my teammates, I let them congratulate me. I like to congratulate them and make sure we’re all just getting the recognition that we deserve, because at the end of the day, we’re all high schoolers and we’re all out here to compete and have fun.”
Though softball is “less stressful” for Kira, she will focus on high jump in college and doesn’t plan to play softball. “I’ll miss it,” she said of softball, before admitting it’s harder to make friends in track since it’s an individual sport.
But Kira praised both her softball and track teammates for keeping her motivated to compete at a high level in each sport. She does the same for her teammates, including Hilliard.
Hilliard and Kira first met during Hilliard’s freshman year in 2024. Hilliard, who is reserved, said it took a season for Kira to break her shell. Hilliard praised Kira for being welcoming and “very nice,” one who “can understand people and not judge.”
“I used to get nervous before I ran, but now I know that I can do it. She is a role model, not just with sports, but she makes me want to be more outgoing, too,” Hilliard said. “She builds my confidence. Sometimes, I talk negatively about myself, but she makes me talk positively.”
Kira’s track teammates often ask one another, “What do you think Kira is thinking?” One minute, she’s dominating in an event. The next, she’s walking around with a blank expression.
Dad believes it’s her “being happy with who she is.” Mom says it’s how she calms herself down. Both are right.
“It’s me trying to focus on my breathing, because my heart will get fast. I get really anxious when I have something else to run. It pulls my focus away from high jump, so I have to remind myself that I have time, and that whatever happens is going to be OK,” Kira revealed.
Kira follows family tradition in track, carves own path in softball
Kira was a long jumper until seventh grade, when she asked her dad to teach her high jump. Kira’s height made Steve hesitant to let her compete. A growth spurt heading into eighth grade opened the door for Kira to learn the new event.
Steve and assistant coach Jacob Aldrich expected Kira to jump around 5-4 her freshman season. She posted 5-7 by the middle of the year.
The Smith name in track and field was set to reign for another four years.
Le’gretta led the Warriors to three team state track championships. Steve won silver in the high jump at the 1994 Pan American Games. Laila, Kira’s older sister, won the 300 hurdles state championship in 2024. Samaya, the second oldest, helped Warren Central capture the 2024 team state title alongside her sisters.
Samaya became the first Black tennis state champion from Indianapolis in 2025. Steve believes Samaya’s decision to pursue tennis in high school influenced Kira to be the first in the family to play high school softball.
Samaya says her and Laila’s influence started long before.
Samaya and Laila weren’t always receptive when Kira asked to play tennis with them. In turn, Kira had time to hone the skills she’d need to lead the Warriors with a .528 batting average during the 2026 season. Warren Central went 7-14, earning its most wins in a season since 2019.
Kira first took interest in softball around 7, when she saw her dad watching the women’s college World Series. Steve taught each of his daughters how to catch at a young age. Kira had the skillset to succeed. And the sisterhood to thrive.
“Her progression and everything has been quick to keep up with her sisters and I think that allows her not to show much fear,” Steve said.
Samaya, who previously struggled with mental health, admires and respects her sister’s “carefree” approach to sport.
Le’gretta, the mom, feels the same. Le’gretta, the coach, not so much.
“I want to see more of a lion come out,” she said. “If someone on the relay team says they can’t run, she says, ‘Oh, it’s OK.’ I need her to say, ‘We need you.’
“She’s a pleaser and she definitely leads by example, but I want her to add that vocal leadership.”
Time to be a teenager is coming. First, Kira aims to win state
Kira fell over a hurdle at regional on May 26. She still managed to finish third in the 300 hurdles and qualify for state. Afterward, she didn’t beat herself up. Rather, she and Hilliard planned breakfast for the track team on Wednesday.
Kira, determined on her quest for greatness in high jump, longs to capture her first individual state medal and lead her team to another state title. But Kira’s desperation is different. The idea of greatness does not consume her. Life for this young teenager is more than the 6-1 leap she can do over a crossbar.
It’s sharing a laugh with her friends during track practice that fuels Kira. It’s singing chants in the dugout. Playing card games and Just Dance with her teammates to the point where friendly competition turns serious. It’s coming home, and in stride with her people-pleasing personality, showering her mom with hugs.
“She’s not like most teenagers who go to their room and do TikTok,” Le’gretta said.
She’s different than most.
Kira is learning Japanese now, as if being fluent in Spanish and English at her age isn’t already impressive. Kira wants to join the choir.
Kira will compete in the USA Track and Field Nationals from June 17 to June 22 in Oregon and in the National Softball Championships from July 12 to July 18 in Florida. Then she begins a three- to four-months recovery period. Or as Stephen called it, “her time off to be a teenager,” in which Kira can sing all she wants.
The Smiths may have an Olympian in the making with Kira. But they don’t foresee a Whitney Houston in their daughter.
“I probably won’t encourage a solo, but she can harmonize in the background,” Le’gretta joked.
“I ain’t never hear her sing nothing,” Steve added. “This is new to me. She’s always up to something. Maybe somebody heard her sing and said, ‘You can’t sing,’ and then she’s now gonna say, ‘OK, watch this.’”
Kira embraces a challenge. Chemistry is her favorite subject. She wants to jump 6-4 by the end of high school. It could happen Friday at state. She’s a risk-taker, eager to try new things. A food allergy helped forge a lane to do so.
Now Kira runs in it, stopping at will wherever her inquisitive mind is drawn.
Joshua Heron is an enterprise and Fever reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @HeronReports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Warren Central’s Kira Smith ranks among world’s best high jumpers