Olympic champion, backstroke swim star, and Speedo Athlete Kathleen Baker has stayed in-touch with the water nearly nonstop since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. When she couldn’t find pool time, she swam open water, went surfing or body surfing.
In this GMM takeover of the SwimSwam podcast, Kathleen takes us back to her roots, back to when she first started breaking national age group records as an 11-12 age grouper. Pay attention, Kathleen’s goal-setting skills were pro level when she was 12, and she has notebooks with goals going back to when she was only 9 nine years old. My favorite Kathleen goal from when she was a kid…? Swim a 200 fly. Nice!
Kathleen’s been challenged more than most, especially considering how she has had to manage her Crohn’s disease. In some ways she’s been prepared to shoulder the pandemic. She’s intimate with and understands managing extreme discomfort. However, there’s only so much an athlete can take, and Kathleen’s health was compromised the year preceding the pandemic at 2019 FINA World Championships. That has knocked her out of nearly two years of swimming at her peak level. Kathleen’s clearly resilient, and she shares how she got back to top form this past spring at the Pro Swim Series.
- 2020 Des Moines Pro Swim – 100 lcm back – Baker 58.56 – 2nd to Regan, who swam a 58.18
- 2020 Des Moines Pro Swim – 200 lcm back – Baker 2:06.46 – 2nd to Regan, who swam a 2:06.16
Kathleen is a longtime David Marsh athlete, and she has a lot to say if you assume her workouts are all sprints. For the curious, Kathleen breaks down what mid-distance and distance practices look like in a Marsh workout.
There a lot more to this podcast. Listen to the end to hear it all…
Follow Kathleen Baker on Instagram here.
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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
Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
Great interview/podcast. Did she say one thing favorable about her college experience or coaches ?- seems like college just got in the way of her training with Marsh- perhaps she should have just gone pro? She’s such a fighter. Glad to have her competing for US. Wishing her the best!
I take the first part of my comment back. I heard KB on another podcast be much more nuanced about CAL and how she enjoyed and grew from the experience. I stand corrected.
which podcast?
When Kathleen beat Katinka in the 200 IM in Nice, with the World’s best time this year, was just EPIC!
I was excited for her 2020 US OTs. She was on-point, ready to swim–even wow fans. (We’re getting there in 2021. We’re hearing that 2021 late spring, early summer competitions, and the OGs will happen….hearing the plan to ensure they do, in fact, makes a lot of sense. Sober thinking going into it. So, very positive about the Olympic horizon, and hoping for the official announcement this fall as the plan is still being fine-tuned.)
late spring/early summer sounds just barely cutting it for the Olympics… but I am sure billions of people are praying for Tokyo to happen in 2021, it would be as big of a deal as London in 1948!
Yes, that was a huge time for in season swim (her free leg was slower than her back)