Kathleen Baker has always been fast, setting national records all the way back to the 11-12 age group. While she competed at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and was a member of Team USA’s 2015 World Championship Team, it seemed she was shot out of a cannon this past summer in Rio.
At the 2016 Olympic Games Kathleen Baker finished second to Katinka Hosszu to win silver in the 100 backstroke. Her 58.75 was just one one hundredth of a second off the third place finishers who tied, Kylie Masse of Canada and Fu Yuanhui of China. Baker was also the backstroke leg of the women’s 4×100 medley relay that won gold on the final night of Olympic competition.
Kathleen caught us up on her life since becoming a 2-time Olympic medalist.
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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.
It will be interesting to see which members of the US Rio Olympic Swim Team will be able to re-focus and maintain the training intensity necessary to do well at NCAA’s this year and the World Championships next year. When you’ve already won an Olympic gold medal, even if it was on a relay, as was the case for Miss. Baker, motivating yourself to go through the grinding pain of training to be better than you’ve ever been before and better than your competitors might be difficult. Of course, it might also make you believe in yourself and your potential more than you ever have before, so it’s a good problem to have…
If she wants to go to Budapest she has no choice. Her event, the 100 back, is so hard in USA with probably at least 8 girls able to swim under the minute next year (Baker, Smoliga, Franklin, DeLoof, Bilquist, Stevens, Walsh, Smith and maybe a few others) that the slightest relaxation in terms of training would be very costly.
Yes, lots of depth for American women in both the 100 and 200 backstroke. Id still say Baker is the top 100 backstoker through 2017, but Deloof, Bilquist, and Smith are all swimming great and I wouldnt be surprised to see one of them have a phenomenal summer. Unless one of the 8 girls you mentioned really breaks out, 2020 trials is going to be an absolute bloodbath in womens backstroke