University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Chase Kalisz
June 16, 2020 | Swimming & Diving, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Chase Kalisz has made the best of a tough situation the past couple of months. The Georgia swimming legend, a three-time NCAA champion and now one of the best swimmers in the world, has been putting in laps in any pools that Jack Bauerle, Georgia's Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach, can find.
Swimming in someone's backyard pool isn't how this spring and summer were supposed to go. This was supposed to be an Olympic year and Kalisz, who took home a silver in the 400 individual medley at the 2016 Olympics and won gold in the 200 and 400 IM at the 2017 world championships, would ordinarily have been gearing up for the Olympic Trials and the Tokyo Games. But the coronavirus pandemic halted all of that.
Since March, when the Games were postponed to 2021, the 6-foot-4 Kalisz, who is from the Baltimore area and has remained in Athens since college training with Bauerle, took a little time off before resetting his Olympic calendar and getting back to work. During a recent Quick Chat, he talked about what he's been up to, training with Michael Phelps, eating good food on the road and much more.
Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: I talked to you right after it was announced that the Olympics were going to be postponed, back in late March, and you seemed to be handling that news pretty well. What have the last few months been like for you?
Kalisz: I was talking with one of the guys that's training with our pro group and I was telling him, when we weren't swimming, I don't remember those days at all — they're just a blur because for the first time in my life I didn't really have a focus point. I know it might sound dark and I don't mean it to sound dark at all, I just woke up every day with no purpose. I was completely fine, there was just really nothing in my scope.
I'm glad we're getting to something that's a little closer to normalcy right now.
Frierson: Because what you do requires such singular focus and dedication, having the Olympics postponed and having the ability to get in a pool taken away for a while had to be an incredibly jarring experience.
Kalisz: It's certainly a strange year. I don't think anyone ever considered a scenario like this, so we're all taking it a step at a time and it's new for everyone. I think a lot of us (swimmers) are figuring it out — for myself, I was obviously devastated for about two weeks and then I hit a month at home of just complete boredom, just being locked inside my head. I started breaking things down, looking at what I needed to do, and there were a lot of positives from this.
For Jack and myself, I think we learned a lot about how we need to operate in this year, what worked and what didn't work, because it's a completely different year than every other year. I think there's a lot of good that's going to come from this and I for sure feel more mentally refreshed knowing that. I'm now just taking the next steps toward really mentally preparing for round two, for another 12 months (of preparing for the Olympics).
Frierson: You live such a physical and active life as a professional athlete, how have you stayed physically active during all this?
Kalisz: The timing of it is all so strange. When all this started, we were at the Olympic Training Center (in Colorado Springs, Colo.), pretty much putting in our last block of real hard work before we started to come down in yardage for the Olympic Trials. That made the timing of it a little weird because that was the phase when the work was already done and it was more-so fine-tuning all the details. Everything kind of came to a halt when everything was going so well.
The pro swimmers that train with Jack were still planning on having practice the next day (after the Olympics were postponed) and I told him, I think I'm just going to take a week or two to mentally reset. I stayed on weights, I have a whole weight room in my house, so I can do my complete weights, and I also have a Peloton, which we've all been using. I definitely put on some weight and Jack definitely let me know it, but I think I'm in a good spot, still.
We're pretty much back to doing full-yardage practices, we did our first double (morning and afternoon) yesterday, so we'll probably do two less workouts a week than we normally do, but we're pretty much up to normal levels. Our set yesterday was actually more yardage in a main set than we did all of last year. ...
We probably had the best situation of anyone (elite swimmers) in the country, honestly. Jack was awesome at finding us water and we were swimming in backyard pools that were 17 yards — and they were fine, that was all we needed to do was just stay connected with the water. ... I think it was very productive and we really didn't have too much down time outside of the pool.
Frierson: Given your size and athleticism, did you play a bunch of sports growing up or was it always just swimming for you?
Kalisz: Oh, I pretty much played every sport up until high school: soccer, basketball, lacrosse, swimming. I was terrible at soccer, pretty good at lacrosse, basketball I never really focused on, I don't know why — my dad played basketball in college — but basketball just never really did it for me. Swimming was always my year-round sport and the other ones were more seasonal.
I enjoyed playing the other sports and I definitely enjoyed the practices of the other sports more than swimming.
Frierson: Growing up training with Michael Phelps and watching him up close day after day, what part of that relationship or experience was the most valuable for you?
Kalisz: I could list you a billion things that I learned from Michael and that I had the opportunity to get from him that pretty much no one else in the world had the opportunity to get, so I was very lucky. I couldn't imagine a better training situation for someone going to college and wanting to be a professional swimmer one day, wanting to be an Olympian, than being able to be his training partner.
I guess I would say the biggest thing I learned from Michael was probably mental toughness. It's a big factor in swimming and there are a lot of people that are significantly more talented than the best swimmers in the world, but just can't really put it together — for different reasons, it's a stressful sport and you focus on one day (at the Olympics) for four years.
There are a lot of mental challenges that go into the sport and we were kind of put in a very hostile situation, from 2009 to 2012, every day was tough, every day was a challenge, there was a lot of screaming and yelling and perfection was demanded every single day. Every single little detail, no matter how small, everything had to be executed perfectly. That doesn't really go on anywhere else in the world, in any training program under any other coach (Bob Bowman). Those times have definitely shaped me and prepared me for a professional swimming career.
Frierson: You've been a national team member since 2012 and you've competed all over the world, so is there one place that you enjoyed the most? Is there a place you can't wait to go back to one day?
Kalisz: When we travel some places, we go to the hotel and we go to the pool and all of our meals are catered, but I'm the most ADHD person in the world and I can't sit in a hotel room. I pretty much explore every city I go to; I don't get to do all the things I want to do but I get a pretty good experience by eating out every single meal and just walking around doing tourist stuff.
I would say the city that shocked me the most, that I never thought I would like, was Budapest, which is an unreal city. My favorite city? I love Tokyo, Barcelona, Paris — I love everywhere I've been in Europe and I want to go back to Japan more and go all around Japan. I've been to a lot of cool places.
Frierson: What is the best meal you've ever had? Is there one that stands out above the rest?
Kalisz: I've eaten at Michelin star restaurants all over Europe and Japan and the U.S., and I love that type of dining, the course-out meals. As far as overall cuisine, it's pretty hard to beat Italy. I also really enjoyed the meals I had in Spain, and I love Japanese food — but I'd probably learn toward ... man, France was really good, too [laughs].
I don't know, I do love French cooking, that's probably my favorite cuisine. Italy, you just go around anywhere and it's a lot more casual and you can get unreal food. It's more accessible than France, for sure, and Spain's kind of similar. Man, lots of countries have a lot of good food, way better than ours.
Frierson: If you could be great at anything for a day, just to experience it, what would it be?
Kalisz: Day trading.
Frierson: OK, that was an unexpected answer. Is that an interest of yours?
Kalisz: Not particularly, I don't think it's a good idea for me to be doing day trading. But if I knew all the information, hell yeah, give me that for a day.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
Chase Kalisz has made the best of a tough situation the past couple of months. The Georgia swimming legend, a three-time NCAA champion and now one of the best swimmers in the world, has been putting in laps in any pools that Jack Bauerle, Georgia's Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach, can find.
Swimming in someone's backyard pool isn't how this spring and summer were supposed to go. This was supposed to be an Olympic year and Kalisz, who took home a silver in the 400 individual medley at the 2016 Olympics and won gold in the 200 and 400 IM at the 2017 world championships, would ordinarily have been gearing up for the Olympic Trials and the Tokyo Games. But the coronavirus pandemic halted all of that.
Since March, when the Games were postponed to 2021, the 6-foot-4 Kalisz, who is from the Baltimore area and has remained in Athens since college training with Bauerle, took a little time off before resetting his Olympic calendar and getting back to work. During a recent Quick Chat, he talked about what he's been up to, training with Michael Phelps, eating good food on the road and much more.
Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: I talked to you right after it was announced that the Olympics were going to be postponed, back in late March, and you seemed to be handling that news pretty well. What have the last few months been like for you?
Kalisz: I was talking with one of the guys that's training with our pro group and I was telling him, when we weren't swimming, I don't remember those days at all — they're just a blur because for the first time in my life I didn't really have a focus point. I know it might sound dark and I don't mean it to sound dark at all, I just woke up every day with no purpose. I was completely fine, there was just really nothing in my scope.
I'm glad we're getting to something that's a little closer to normalcy right now.
Frierson: Because what you do requires such singular focus and dedication, having the Olympics postponed and having the ability to get in a pool taken away for a while had to be an incredibly jarring experience.
Kalisz: It's certainly a strange year. I don't think anyone ever considered a scenario like this, so we're all taking it a step at a time and it's new for everyone. I think a lot of us (swimmers) are figuring it out — for myself, I was obviously devastated for about two weeks and then I hit a month at home of just complete boredom, just being locked inside my head. I started breaking things down, looking at what I needed to do, and there were a lot of positives from this.
For Jack and myself, I think we learned a lot about how we need to operate in this year, what worked and what didn't work, because it's a completely different year than every other year. I think there's a lot of good that's going to come from this and I for sure feel more mentally refreshed knowing that. I'm now just taking the next steps toward really mentally preparing for round two, for another 12 months (of preparing for the Olympics).
Frierson: You live such a physical and active life as a professional athlete, how have you stayed physically active during all this?
Kalisz: The timing of it is all so strange. When all this started, we were at the Olympic Training Center (in Colorado Springs, Colo.), pretty much putting in our last block of real hard work before we started to come down in yardage for the Olympic Trials. That made the timing of it a little weird because that was the phase when the work was already done and it was more-so fine-tuning all the details. Everything kind of came to a halt when everything was going so well.
The pro swimmers that train with Jack were still planning on having practice the next day (after the Olympics were postponed) and I told him, I think I'm just going to take a week or two to mentally reset. I stayed on weights, I have a whole weight room in my house, so I can do my complete weights, and I also have a Peloton, which we've all been using. I definitely put on some weight and Jack definitely let me know it, but I think I'm in a good spot, still.
We're pretty much back to doing full-yardage practices, we did our first double (morning and afternoon) yesterday, so we'll probably do two less workouts a week than we normally do, but we're pretty much up to normal levels. Our set yesterday was actually more yardage in a main set than we did all of last year. ...
We probably had the best situation of anyone (elite swimmers) in the country, honestly. Jack was awesome at finding us water and we were swimming in backyard pools that were 17 yards — and they were fine, that was all we needed to do was just stay connected with the water. ... I think it was very productive and we really didn't have too much down time outside of the pool.
Frierson: Given your size and athleticism, did you play a bunch of sports growing up or was it always just swimming for you?
Kalisz: Oh, I pretty much played every sport up until high school: soccer, basketball, lacrosse, swimming. I was terrible at soccer, pretty good at lacrosse, basketball I never really focused on, I don't know why — my dad played basketball in college — but basketball just never really did it for me. Swimming was always my year-round sport and the other ones were more seasonal.
I enjoyed playing the other sports and I definitely enjoyed the practices of the other sports more than swimming.
Frierson: Growing up training with Michael Phelps and watching him up close day after day, what part of that relationship or experience was the most valuable for you?
Kalisz: I could list you a billion things that I learned from Michael and that I had the opportunity to get from him that pretty much no one else in the world had the opportunity to get, so I was very lucky. I couldn't imagine a better training situation for someone going to college and wanting to be a professional swimmer one day, wanting to be an Olympian, than being able to be his training partner.
I guess I would say the biggest thing I learned from Michael was probably mental toughness. It's a big factor in swimming and there are a lot of people that are significantly more talented than the best swimmers in the world, but just can't really put it together — for different reasons, it's a stressful sport and you focus on one day (at the Olympics) for four years.
There are a lot of mental challenges that go into the sport and we were kind of put in a very hostile situation, from 2009 to 2012, every day was tough, every day was a challenge, there was a lot of screaming and yelling and perfection was demanded every single day. Every single little detail, no matter how small, everything had to be executed perfectly. That doesn't really go on anywhere else in the world, in any training program under any other coach (Bob Bowman). Those times have definitely shaped me and prepared me for a professional swimming career.
Frierson: You've been a national team member since 2012 and you've competed all over the world, so is there one place that you enjoyed the most? Is there a place you can't wait to go back to one day?
Kalisz: When we travel some places, we go to the hotel and we go to the pool and all of our meals are catered, but I'm the most ADHD person in the world and I can't sit in a hotel room. I pretty much explore every city I go to; I don't get to do all the things I want to do but I get a pretty good experience by eating out every single meal and just walking around doing tourist stuff.
I would say the city that shocked me the most, that I never thought I would like, was Budapest, which is an unreal city. My favorite city? I love Tokyo, Barcelona, Paris — I love everywhere I've been in Europe and I want to go back to Japan more and go all around Japan. I've been to a lot of cool places.
Frierson: What is the best meal you've ever had? Is there one that stands out above the rest?
Kalisz: I've eaten at Michelin star restaurants all over Europe and Japan and the U.S., and I love that type of dining, the course-out meals. As far as overall cuisine, it's pretty hard to beat Italy. I also really enjoyed the meals I had in Spain, and I love Japanese food — but I'd probably learn toward ... man, France was really good, too [laughs].
I don't know, I do love French cooking, that's probably my favorite cuisine. Italy, you just go around anywhere and it's a lot more casual and you can get unreal food. It's more accessible than France, for sure, and Spain's kind of similar. Man, lots of countries have a lot of good food, way better than ours.
Frierson: If you could be great at anything for a day, just to experience it, what would it be?
Kalisz: Day trading.
Frierson: OK, that was an unexpected answer. Is that an interest of yours?
Kalisz: Not particularly, I don't think it's a good idea for me to be doing day trading. But if I knew all the information, hell yeah, give me that for a day.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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