Chase is a good guy. A better title to this piece might be Badgering Chase Kalisz. We caught him at the very end of a long night, and he did not expect to be interviewed. The Olympic medalist and World Champion swam fast at the Austin Pro Swim:
- 400 IM – 4:10.80
- 200 IM – 1:57.50
- 200 Breast – 2:11.21
- 200 Butterfly – 1:55.63
As he said on camera, he’s feeling big man speed now. Chase is loving the pro life, and he expects to close a swimwear partnership soon, making the pro life official.
***Expect a Day In The Life with Chase video feature soon courtesy of Coleman “The Hammer” Hodges.
In the meantime, with Chase dropping such fast swims so early in the season, what do you think he’ll go at U.S. Pan Pac and World Championship Trials this summer? I think Chase is 4:05.8 400IM, 1:55.1 200IM, 1:53.9 200 fly. Bottom-line, he’s faster than his ’17 summer times. What do you think?
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
Y’all gonna hate on this so much, but Kalisz has had two great summers in a row now. I think it’s awesome,but I don’t think he has the easy raw speed of Phelps or the closing freestyle to challenge the world record in the 4 im. I don’t think Kalisz drops much time and stays around the same level of last year (except the 2 fly where he didn’t have a chance to swim it at Budapest when he was in top form).
4:06.0
1:55.4
1:54.1
If you compare Chase K.’s 4:05.90 with Michael Phelps WR 4:03.84, this is what you find:
Phelps leads by one second after the fly, and three seconds after the back. Then Chase K. makes up about three seconds on the breast. Phelps leads Chase by 0,2 seconds going into the freestyle. Then Phelps opens the lead up again and finishes 2 seconds ahead of Chase: 4:03.84 to 4:05.90.
This shows how good Chase’s breaststroke is. In the interview, he talks about working on his backstroke and freestyle.
So perhaps, he’s done this analysis himself, and sees how he can close the gap to approach the 400 IM WR.
Whats even more amazing is that when you watch Phelps WR race, the breastroke leg is what seperated him from Lochte and Cseh (though the freestyle leg further semented his leg), and Kalisz’s split just blows it away.
Chase looks like he’s swimming downhill in the breaststroke.
I think he’s trying to slice a second each off the backstroke and free legs to get closer to the 4:03.84 WR.
I always look at his 200 split. In Budapest he was 1:59, his first time under 2:00.
His free will never be fast enough to close like Phelps, but his back is a major part in the race in order to get the wr
Mel, you are rarely this pessimistic! 4:05.8? (Nothing wrong with that), just cause it’s a pan pac year doesn’t mean he won’t drop more than 0.1.
I say
400 im 4:05.4
200 im 1:55.1
200 fly 1:54.1
I just voted you UP because I tossed that prediction out with no guts behind it… My mind was 4:05.8, but my heart was screaming 4:04.9. HOWEVER, I do think Pan Pacs is a mid-quad Sunday-stroll. After winning an Olympic medal and becoming a WChampion, Pan Pacs could be tough to mentally get UP for…. Japan, while a great nation, is a tough location to swim fast.
Very lax on the predictions there, Mel. I think at the least he goes new numers in the IMs. 4:04 and 1:54. Mid quad syndrome won’t affect him, and I wouldn’t be that surprised by a Brendan Hansen in 06 showing although it might look more like Lochte in 10. Chase is double IM WR sometime this quad.
I agree with you on the 1:53.9 Fly tho… And I think we might see him swim a 200 free (USA Relay baby) or 200 breast ($$$) at Nationals as well. I’d say either 1:46 mid-high, or 2:08.
I think he can get the 400 im world record, but I have doubts he will get the 200 im
chase is really a great athlete, but i think that the 400 im wr will not be beaten for a while. i think it’s the toughest WR in the books
Toughest record looks like Bidermann’s 200 free. Only 1 person has gotten closer than 1.8 seconds to that in textile, and he’s done.
Whenever I think about ‘toughest records,’ for some reason my instinct is always to think that sprint records are ‘harder’ to break than middle distance or distance records. To me, there’s a lot more to learn, to develop, about endurance swimming than there is about sprint swimming. We have so many of these legendary distance swimmers that do things that most of the world’s coaches look at and say “that’s wrong” or “that’s ugly.” Think Katie Ledecky and Sun Yang double breathing into turns, Janet Evans windmilling…it just ‘feels’ to me like there’s still a lot more to learn about longer races than there is about sprints. Especially when you have someone like Ledecky roll in and demolish records by… Read more »
@Braden Keith – Normally I’d agree that distance records are easier, but we just watched a guy go 17.6. No sprint records are saferight now (the women’s Sprint records were set last year so those are very breakable by the same person)
One guy might get that elusive 200 free WR before 2020 – and its Townley Haas in my humble opinion . He has the potential for it .
Ya…. no
I honestly see the 200 free and 800 free world records staying around for a long time, along with the women’s 200 fly. These seem to be the generational records that will stay where they are for years if not multiple decades. I’d love to be proven wrong but they seem so far away from the top swimmers at this point
I think Townley’s got the talent to breakthrough… He hasn’t yet, but the potential is there. 2-free is a monstrous record, but it’ll go down. Why not Townley by 2020?
Biedermann 200F is for sure one of the thoughests records, but i feel that in the last few years no one has really focused on that distance. (except maybe for Sun Yang who did an all in rio 2016, but without forgetting the 400) – and maybe thats why no one gets near it?
Oh respectfully disagree. The toughest record on the books is Ms. Ledecky’s 800 free!
yeah that and women’s 200 fly
And women’s 50 Fly is pretty absurd too
Yeah, the women’s 50 fly, with the wind, is nuts. I wonder if someone could get it though…with the wind.
That would be interesting but I think even with the wind, Sjöstrom is the only one who can, as non-wind aided she’s still .6 faster than the next best textile swim.
i have to change my opinion and give you, MIKEH and SCIENCE GEEK, the reason
I truly liked this interview u did with Chase – he is such a talented swimmer and one of the most consistently improving for the past 3 years on the Us Team . I see he has potential to get better ( if he wants to ) in the 200 breast and 200 fly and can improve on his last year WC times in both IM’s . With the mindset he has , he can certainly go the times u predicted . Loved his persistence not to tell his summer goals yet …shows how much he believes in himself and his Mentor / Coach preparations . Go Chase !!✌️