KALISZ Chase

General
LEARNING FROM PHELPS
He cites his former training partner Michael Phelps as playing a key role in his career in terms of mental toughness. "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. The biggest thing I learned from him 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." (georgiadogs.com, 16 Jun 2020)

GETTING INTO IM
He began to focus on the individual medley through training with Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps. "It was more so that it was my best event. I come from a training programme in North Baltimore with Bob [Bowman] and Michael [Phelps], where pretty much every single set was an IM-based training. I eventually just got good enough at that where it just made so much sense to me and that's how it became my best event." (swimoutlet.com, 21 Mar 2019)

CHILDHOOD MEDICAL CONDITION
At age eight he had to crawl down the hall of the family home to tell his parents he could barely move his arms or legs. They initially thought he was feeling the effects of a 5km race he had competed in the day before. However his condition deteriorated and he was taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. He was semi-paralysed, but after therapy and rehabilitation he was able to swim six months later and went on to make a full recovery. (pressboxonline.com, 14 May 2012)

AMBASSADOR
He serves as an ambassador for the USA Swimming Foundation. "Being an ambassador for them is an awesome experience. It has a great mission and their swimming programmes are very vital. They have improved water safety and reduced drowning rates over the years." (digitaljournal.com, 04 Sep 2019)