"I've done more yardage now” - Chase Kalisz on training under Bob Bowman

Chase Kalisz, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, has had a dream run in the pool. In a recently concluded Pro Swim Series, he secured the top spot with a time of 1.56.40.

Speaking to SwimSwam, Kalisz shared his thoughts on training with Bob Bowman.

"It's been pretty rough. I'm not gonna lie. I probably had more bad practices than I've ever had in my entire life combined. We've done, I... I will say, I've done more yardage now than I've ever done in my entire life."

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Chase Kalisz speaks about his performance, coach Bowman, and more

Chase Kalisz, a two-time gold medalist at the World Aquatics Championships, has been looking to improve every day. He has won two Olympic medals, one silver in Rio and a gold in Tokyo.

In the recently concluded Pro Swim Series 2023, Chase Kalisz won the 200-meter Butterfly and finished second in the men's 200-meter backstroke.

Talking about his struggles with backstrokes, he said,

"I don't know, I don't really do that... that much. It's, I've always kind of struggled with the backstroke. So I guess it's fine to fly with. I think it's fine, as far as executing the race and how I wanted to, it's kind of what I did. But I don't know, like it's that time of the Season where we're just coming off of a month of eight and nine K's. So I'm, I didn't really know what to expect, honestly."

When asked about how it was training with Bob Bowman, Kalisz said that he was his age group coach. He helped Kalisz get a great aerobic base.

Kalisz at the Team USA Swimming Open Training Session

Later on, Chase Kalisz was asked if he was putting in the same amount of work that he put in his last quad, and he said,

"You know, I talked with Jack about that and it's just like where I was with swimming at that time and if I would have done this type of work, I probably wouldn't be swimming right now. Jack has such a great ability to understand his athletes and you know, we did as much as I possibly could handle."

He also said that he was not doing the same work last quad and now they have got a great plan moving forward;

"You know I've been doing the 4 am for a long time. And it's not an easy thing to do and it's not an easy thing to prepare for it. It's not something I'm gonna be able to do every single meet anymore. But, we've kind of got, we've got a great plan, but, no, I was not doing this type of work last quad."

Chase is quite likely to join Team USA at the Paris Olympics, but he must first make it through the qualifying rounds for the main competition. He is quite eligible to qualify for the 200-meter as he has already clocked 1:15.52, which is comparatively much better than the eligibility criteria. Also in the 400-meter IM, Kalisz clocked 4:10.09 to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

In what may be his final Olympics, Chase Kalisz will be hoping to win gold in the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medleys in Paris in 2024.