Courtesy of P2Life, a SwimSwam partner.
The Greatest Of All Time, Katie Ledecky, first used the following words to describe 15-year-old Katie Grimes at the US Olympic Trials last year.
“You’re the future”
Yet only a couple of days later Ledecky corrected that description, changing it on national TV describing young Miss Grimes as…
“You’re the Now”
That change happened after Katie had upset all the favorites in the 800 free, becoming one of the youngest female swimmers in history to earn a spot on the US Olympic Team.
For most at the US Trials, it was a shock and probably the biggest upset victory at the entire Trials, but for others it was no surprise at all. Katie had been making huge drops in times and equally huge leaps in the national rankings.
True to Ms. Ledecky’s predictions, Katie has continued her meteoric rise and recently became only the second woman, but the youngest woman in history to represent the USA in both Open Water and Pool events for the upcoming 2022 World Championships. This after having demolished a strong international field including the best in the US in winning the recent US Open Water Trials in the 10k and 7.5k events.
Then very shortly thereafter Katie, made the switch from open water to the pool, again showing significant improvement, in upsetting the favorites winning the 400 IM at the Phillips 66 International Team Trials
Here is a quick look at the 2 events Katie will swim in Representing the US in the upcoming World Championships. Note Katie’s meteoric rise in the US Age Group Historical Best Times Rankings over the past 4 years.
| Year | 2022
(Age 16) |
USA All Time Ranking (15-16) | 2019
(Age 13) |
USA All Time Ranking (13-14) | 2018
(Age 12) |
USA All Time Ranking (11-12) |
| 1500 Free | 15:51.36 | 2 | 16.32.88 | 12 | 17.30.78 | 14 |
| 400 IM | 4:36.17 | 3 | 4:51.13 | 14 | 5:08.32 | 34 |
IMPRESSIVE IS A GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT
So what is Katie’s secret, what is she doing that has helped her achieve these tremendous improvements and results?
Let’s give credit where credit is due. First of course to Katie, her fantastic dedication, work ethic, talent and champions mentality. Also her incredible coach and training partners, and of course her loving parents, Shari and Christian.
Not only did Shari and Christian supply Katie with the genes and temperament of a champion, but like all other swim parents, have encouraged, supported, and sacrificed for Katie over the many years of her phenomenal swimming development.
The story is repeated daily amongst hundreds of thousands of parents all across the world, a complete dedication to helping their children become the best they can be. Countless hours and miles in the car driving them to and from practice sessions. Hundreds of weekends sitting at pools waiting for and watching their children swim. Huge financial investments in fees and travel. Christian and Shari have done it all.
But Christian and Shari took it to the next level. They also realized the critical role nutrition would play in Katie’s overall development and ultimate success.
Only with Maximum Health can you achieve Maximum Performance. Further, you can only achieve maximum health when you provide the human body every nutrient it requires 24/7/365.
This is especially true when you include the tremendous additional daily nutritional demands competitive swimming places on the human body. Add to that the increased nutritional demands during maturity, and it is very easy and common to consume sufficient calories, but not sufficient nutrients. The result being decreased short and long term development and performance and increased risk of injury and illness.
So when Katie was 12 and soon starting to mature physically, Christian and Shari realized that given the incredible physical demands being placed on Katie’s body with her maturing and all her training, they realized they not only needed to concentrate on the value of the food they prepared for her, but knew they needed to supplement her meals as well. Their many hours of investigating for the very best, concentrated but safe nutritional supplements led them to, like World Record holder Michael Andrews parents Peter and Tina, young male phenom Matt Sates mother Taryn and many many others, P2Life Nutrition.
Christian and Shari have been quietly purchasing P2Life nutritional products for well over 3 years. In their own words here is how they feel about how P2Life nutritional products have meant to them and assisted Katie in her amazing development.
“P2Life was the answer to a long and thorough search for a nutritional supplement that would meet the needs of my daughter’s dietary demands. As a family, we had already made significant changes to our diet to meet the needs of our children’s rigorous swim training. We realized that we were still missing the mark and that something was missing. This is where P2Life has made a huge impact. We discovered that to be successful you need to be mentally strong, have excellent training, a very good diet, and a nutritional supplement that fills in the gaps before training, between meals, and before going to bed. Katie loves the taste of P2Life Nutriboost shakes and benefits from the other products which she uses daily. It was incredibly important to me that all P2Life products be certified free of banned and illegal substances and that every batch produced is tested by an independent third party. We are very happy and satisfied with P2Life and proud that Katie has become an ambassador for them.” Christian Grimes
P2Life is extremely proud and honored to announce Katie Grimes as a P2Life Nutrition Ambassador
We at P2Life are extremely proud and thankful the entire Grimes family have honored us in not only deciding P2Life products were ideal for Katie, but wanting and allowing us to share their story with the world.
P2Life is NOT just for champions like Katie, but for anyone of any age who wants to maximize their health, be the best they can be, feel and perform at their greatest potential. That’s what we stand for. Protecting Health, Promoting performance
As already stated Katie has taken a huge leap to become only the second woman in history to represent the USA in both open water and pool swimming.
Recently in Portugal, she took on a star-studded international field in the 10k. In the words of her parents had an awesome swim to the finish just a few seconds out of gold medal position in a thrilling physical sprint to the wall.
Then after a long grueling return flight she went immediately to Mission Viejo for US Swimming’s Pro Series event and in the first night came away with 2 more PB’s in the 100 and 400 free, winning the later in an amazingly fast 4:05.
The second night she did even better, swimming a PB in winning the 200 back in a world class 2:09, Then amazingly returning just 20 minutes later to win the 400 IM in a time just fractions off her best ever time. AMAZING!
Katie is with team USA preparing for the World Champs In Budapest. We know we speak for all in wishing her, and the entire US team the greatest of success.
With an eye to Katie and her future – the picture is clear- THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
ABOUT P2LIFE
P2Life Nutrition was founded by Tim Shead, a Swimming Hall of Fame inductee, past US National Head Swim Coach, involved in the formation of USA Swimming, and current Masters swimmer with over 45 World records. Importantly Tim practices what he preaches, he has taken P2Life products for over 40 years and had lifetime best times at 55 years of age, faster than when he attempted to make the US Olympic team in 1976 as a 20+ year old.