Advertise on podcast: Unfiltered Waters

Olympic silver medalist, world champion and short course world record holder Luke Hobson is back on Unfiltered Waters, this time in person with Katie Hoff Anderson at the University of Texas, to talk about Pan Pacs, chasing the 1:42.0 and life as a pro in Bob Bowman's group. Luke won the 200 free at Pan Pacs in front of a home crowd and went 1-2 with Gabriel Jett, and he still left a little disappointed. He explains why. It was his first year as a pro, with no NCAA season and no trials meet, just nine months of training from the end of the World Cup circuit to August. He was close to his best time, but he believed he had a 1:43 low in him, and he talks about what it is like to get one shot at it after all that work. Then the big one: the 200 free world record, 1:42.00, and how close he has already been. Through the 150 he has been about 0.8 under record pace, and he breaks down what he and Bob are working on to hold it home, from 26.0 pace when he is tired to lengthening his stroke on the third and fourth 50s. Luke also takes Katie inside the Texas pro group: the new "prison yard" dryland circuit that has him leaner than ever, the hardest day of the week (Monday color sets), getting beaten by Hubi and Leon on back dolphin kick, and the yell tally on Bob's board. He explains why he is not a data guy and gave up his Whoop, why "Logical Luke" fits, and what he is looking forward to at Short Course Worlds in Beijing's Water Cube. It ends with a rapid fire "most likely to" round about his training partners and his non-swimming goal: a 10 pound largemouth bass. ----- Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. ----- FOLLOW KATIE ON: Instagram: instagram.com/kthoff7 ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS IM8health.com/discount/unfiltered for 10% off Join the IM8 x Eight Sleep Strava Challenge: https://www.strava.com/challenges/10054?utm_source=social&utm_medium=challenge_partner&utm_campaign=the_im8_x_eight_sleep_challenge_10054&_branch_match_id=1637224310662617703&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAwXBywqAIBAF0C%2Ba3EYQLfqQsLg5kqlchx6bvr1z1Ky2wblm9JfvfK1divlwppB49vIIYlCTloAqxFYu8JVNfUrIAdNH7CBjDsvKcjdwnJXlxA9re5gnWgAAAAA%3D%3D Get your own Mizuno suit at Mizunousa.com endlesspools.com/unfiltered to unlock $1,000 off ----- #UnfilteredWaters #LukeHobson #Swimming

Three-time Olympic champion and 12-time world champion Summer McIntosh sits down with Katie Hoff Anderson in person for the first time, in the Hall of Fame at the University of Texas, to explain what went wrong at Pan Pacs, what she changed afterwards, and what life looks like now that Austin is home. Summer walks through her 2026 season from the inside. She got sick at Canadian Trials, and Bob Bowman was the one who pulled her out of the meet, days after she broke the 200 fly world record in Montreal. That illness cost her the first week of ramping back up, and on top of it she was, in her words, fully over tapered for Pan Pacs. She explains why the meet felt like she could not shift gears, why she stayed up until 3am in her hotel room on the last night writing down everything she wanted to fix, and how she wiped it from her mind before her two weeks off in Toronto. The deeper thread is how she processes a bad meet without dragging it into the next season. She talks about being "either like zero or 100" when it comes to swimming, the small daily habits she is tightening up, from protein after every practice to eight to ten hours of sleep, and the bigger fixes on her turns, her dives and how to train for five events. Her biggest lesson from the summer: "I'd way rather be a little bit under tapered than over tapered." She also gets candid about training under Bob Bowman a year in. He does not hand out many good jobs, he is tapped into every practice, and in her words, "he does not miss a meter." She tells the story of the 200 fly world record she did not think she had in her, turning for the last 50, hearing the crowd and realizing she must be close to record pace. There is plenty of fun in here too: presenting the pole position award to George Russell at the Canadian Grand Prix while dressed head to toe in Red Bull, a 6'10" boyfriend Bob calls "big boy", Katie's theory that the best women swimmers in the world all love to clean, and why Summer tidies her boyfriend's room within five minutes of every visit. She closes with her goal for 2027 outside the pool, learning from her older sister about growing into her own, and why she is skipping Short Course Worlds to train through toward US Open. This one is for anyone who wants to hear how one of the best swimmers in the world handles a meet that did not go her way. ----- Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. ----- FOLLOW KATIE ON: Instagram: instagram.com/kthoff7 ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off IM8health.com/discount/unfiltered for 10% off Join the IM8 x Eight Sleep Strava Challenge: https://www.strava.com/challenges/10054?utm_source=social&utm_medium=challenge_partner&utm_campaign=the_im8_x_eight_sleep_challenge_10054&_branch_match_id=1637224310662617703&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAwXBywqAIBAF0C%2Ba3EYQLfqQsLg5kqlchx6bvr1z1Ky2wblm9JfvfK1divlwppB49vIIYlCTloAqxFYu8JVNfUrIAdNH7CBjDsvKcjdwnJXlxA9re5gnWgAAAAA%3D%3D https://tempurpedic.pxf.io/3k0Xzk to learn more about Tempur-Pedic endlesspools.com/unfiltered to unlock $1,000 off ----- #UnfilteredWaters #SummerMcIntosh #Swimming

Lani Pallister, the Australian distance swimmer who beat Katie Ledecky in the 800 free at Pan Pacs this summer, joins Katie Hoff Anderson and Elizabeth Beisel to explain what changed when she moved to Dean Boxall's squad at St Peters, why she still expects herself to swim fast, and what it is really like racing the kindest person in the sport. Lani walks through the last 18 months, from a mid-season move in the spring of 2025 to a World Championships final in Singapore that everyone had framed as Katie versus Summer, where she ended up second in 8:05. She tells a lunch crowd that she dropped ten seconds in ten weeks, and Cate Campbell answers from the stage with her own number. She talks about Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs back to back, the 200 free and 1500 double, and the hug from Katie Ledecky after the 800. The deeper thread is how much of it is mental. Lani says the change with Dean is "more mental than it is physical", explains why she will not shave her legs or have caffeine until after the morning heat, and describes the Monday threshold sets that end with her throwing up, which is why Australian officials now hand her a bag at the end of the pool. In her words, "I dropped 10 seconds in the space of like 10 weeks with Dean." She also gets into Lane Four, the swimming app she built with Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O'Callaghan, Jamie Perkins, Hannah Fredericks and Taylor McKeown, what six founders in a group chat has taught her about communicating, and why surf lifesaving still feels like a place she should be unbeatable, even if she races it less now to protect her ankles. There is plenty of fun in here too: she makes Dean's coffee every second day, her new apartment is mostly pink and has no sofa yet, she carries film cameras around the pool deck, and she lost a chip game in San Diego that sent her onto the lane rope after a race at Pan Pacs. She closes with the rapid fire: her treat meal, her favourite race ever, the last time she cried to Dean that she was bad at swimming, and how she handles people who do her wrong. In her words, "I'll forgive but I won't forget." It is a relaxed, funny conversation for anyone who follows distance swimming or wants to know who Lani is away from the blocks. ----- Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. ----- FOLLOW KATIE ON: Instagram: instagram.com/kthoff7 ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off ----- #UnfilteredWaters #LaniPallister #Swimming

Luka Mijatovic is a newly minted Longhorn, American record holder in the 1000 free, seven-time gold medalist at this year's Junior Pan Pacs and the youngest male to win a national title other than Michael Phelps. The Northern California swimmer joins Katie Hoff Anderson to explain why he committed early to Texas to train under Bob Bowman, why he felt ready to leave his club team now, and how he is setting himself up to make the Olympic team in LA. Luka walks through the summer that got him here. He had almost no time between Nationals and Junior Pan Pacs, stayed in Irvine to train with a small squad, and went through a double taper for the first time, arriving at Junior Pan Pacs with a blank mindset and one goal: do as best he can for his country. He describes what it feels like to walk out to the USA chants with that black cap on, the team room in the Vancouver dorms with the PB and J station and the card games, and the American record in the 1000 free, where he stopped stressing over the times after a rough couple of days and just swam for fun. The deeper thread is how hard he is on himself and how he keeps it in check. One bad rep can send him into a spiral, to the point that his coach has to tell him to chill out, and he explains how he turns a bad day into work on the little fundamentals. He shares the set he is proud of, twenty 200's long course, completely alone in a half lane while the high schoolers tapered, with Katie asking if he was in the buffer lane. He also explains why he skipped high school season, how he stays in his own lane when the comparisons start ("comparison is the thief of joy"), why his coaches keep pushing him even on good days, and how he tries to lap the swimmer three lanes over when nobody in the group can go with him. Then it is all Texas. Luka explains the unofficial visit to see his friends and go to the Texas-Ohio State game, where Texas was down at halftime, some of his group were about to leave, and everything changed once Texas scored that second touchdown and the crowd went electric. After that trip, he told his friends that if he could recommit, he would recommit. He also gets into whose training style he is closest to on the Texas roster, why Bob's program is not a drastic change from his club team, why his one worry is underwaters, and why he thinks college swimming is bigger than yourself. There is plenty of fun in here too: the Snapchat streak that has Katie doing the math, the 90 up-and-outs his group owes if they are late to the start of practice, the driver's license he is about to get in December right before Austin, how long he would wait at a green light before honking (seven seconds, versus three seconds max for his mom), house music, why he dropped the headphones after Nationals, a pickleball game he ranks at top 24 nationals, and walking his dog at 100 percent instead of 20. He closes with the swim that brought him the most joy, breaking eight minutes in the 800 free at 2023 Summer Juniors with his team on the sideline, his brother's birth as the happiest moment outside the sport ("he's like my ride or die"), and the word that motivates him: dedication. In his words, "I want to be dedicated to whatever I do." For swimmers, swim parents, coaches and anyone curious how the next Texas Longhorn thinks about training, this is Luka Mijatovic in his own words. ----- Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. ----- FOLLOW KATIE ON: Instagram: instagram.com/kthoff7 ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS endlesspools.com/unfiltered to unlock $1,000 off dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off https://tempurpedic.pxf.io/3k0Xzk to learn more about Tempur-Pedic ----- #UnfilteredWaters #LukaMijatovic #Swimming

Cam McEvoy holds the 50 freestyle world record at 20.88 and is the reigning Olympic and world champion in the event. In a normal 50 training block, he swims about 1.5K a week. Fresh off Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow, the Australian sprinter joins Katie Hoff Anderson to explain the gym-first, low-volume approach he built after Tokyo, why it runs against so much of how swimming has always trained, and why he believes the sport has not even seen its ceiling for strength yet. Cam walks through the day it started. In October 2022, after more than a year out of the water, his first session back was six parachute sprints of 12 strokes, and it knocked him out for a two-hour nap even though he has never been a napper. Within eight weeks he beat his Tokyo Olympic time in the 50 free, and within nine months he was world champion. He shares the one time his confidence wavered, when he overdid it in May 2023 and his coach Tim Lane told him to stay out of the pool until the meet, and how the 20.88 in China felt like he was ripping air for the first 25 to 30 meters. He also gets into his short course detour into the 100 freestyle, which is about the relay and the fun of something new, and why protecting his 50 free title makes him wary of adding the 4x100 at LA 2028. The deeper thread is trust. Cam explains why the gains from strength and power work happen outside of conscious experience, why that scares athletes raised on threshold sets they can feel, and why he thinks that fear is holding the sport back. He traces the whole idea to a bouldering gym after Tokyo, where climbers who looked like sticks were repping out front lever holds hanging from one finger on each side, and he lays out how he would approach age group training without pushing kids into either sprinting or high volume too early. He also talks about becoming a dad to his son Hartley, and how being home on the floor playing with him 20 minutes after training has changed how he sees the sport. In his words, "I'm swimming in a hole in the ground full of water." There is plenty of fun in here too: the hot tub five meters from the pool where his group sits for 15 to 20 minutes between 25s, smelling salts before a rep, why suiting up to rip a 25 feels like being 18 and discovering the bench press with your mates, his pitch for a 25 meter competition with a live band, ideally metal, and a pre-Olympic 25 race in LA that Katie wants hosted by Unfiltered Waters. Katie, who has a five-week-old at home and is chasing an Olympic Trials cut in the 100 breaststroke, also gets some very direct pull-up advice: "Spam them into oblivion, basically." He closes with the swim that brought him the most joy, a heat in Fukuoka in 2023 that felt like floating down the pool, the messages he gets every week from people who quit swimming 20 years ago and came back to it because of what he has shared, and the one word that motivates him: potential. For coaches, swim parents and anyone curious how the fastest 50 freestyler in history thinks about training, this is the method explained by the person who built it. ----- Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. ----- FOLLOW KATIE ON: Instagram: instagram.com/kthoff7 ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS IM8health.com/discount/unfiltered for 10% off endlesspools.com/unfiltered to unlock $1,000 off dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off https://tempurpedic.pxf.io/3k0Xzk to learn more about Tempur-Pedic ----- #UnfilteredWaters #CamMcEvoy #Swimming

Kaylee McKeown returns to Unfiltered Waters, and Katie Hoff Anderson catches her in the middle of the hardest year of her career. Kaylee is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, a world record holder and a world champion, and at the time of this conversation she is back to five swim sessions a week at 4K with no intensity and a heart rate monitor tucked into her cap. Glandular fever pulled her out of the Commonwealth Games and the Pan Pacific Championships and left her watching the rest of the world swim fast without her. This is a conversation about what you do with a season that gets taken away from you. She walks Katie through how fast it fell apart. Three weeks out from trials she was swimming as well as she ever had at a camp time trial, then got sick the day before trials and never got it back. She talks about pace hundreds she would normally hold around 1:04 and not being able to break 1:20, a short course 50 back that told her exactly where she stood, and the tracking her coaches now use to stop her doing the thing every elite athlete does by default. She also gets into leaving an old school volume program for one built on quality, why that change rattled her confidence long before it started paying off, and what it is like to watch Cam McEvoy do a week of work that adds up to her warm up. The deeper thread is who she is doing this for. She tells Katie the pressure before Paris got heavy enough that she broke down in tears halfway through a warm up, and that her coach at the time had to pull her aside and remind her nobody was putting that on her but herself. The mantra she has landed on since is doing it because she wants to, not because anyone expects it of her. She is also direct about the endometriosis and PCOS diagnoses that came after Paris, what stage four has actually meant month to month, and how she is weighing LA 2028 against wanting to be a mother, with Brisbane 2032 sitting there as a maybe if the timing works out. Katie, who went through IVF and egg freezing herself, meets her in the middle of it rather than interviewing her about it. There is also Lane Four, the athlete platform she started with her partner after he asked her one night what she planned to do after swimming, now built out with Molly O'Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Jamie Perkins and Hannah Fredericks. She talks about signing with Under Armour, finding out she is more of a leader than she thought, and how much harder it is to keep a group of strong personalities aligned than to swim a hard set. Then there is Millie, the Bernese mountain dog she bought off the Australian version of Marketplace inside an hour, who is five months old, already 24 kilos, and every bit as stubborn as her owner. Rapid fire covers the cleaning habit her teammates would name first, what a crash out looks like for her, the Aussie slang she has to tone down overseas, and the American pool habit she has never understood. If you have watched Kaylee win everything there is to win and wondered what is left to chase, she answers that here in her own words. It is a conversation about a year that did not go to plan, and an athlete working out what she wants the next one to be for. Note: This conversation was recorded while Kaylee was still early in her recovery, so the training she describes reflects where things stood at the time of recording. Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. FOLLOW KATIE ON: Instagram: instagram.com/kthoff7 SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS  IM8health.com/discount/unfiltered for 10% off  dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off #UnfilteredWaters #KayleeMcKeown #Swimming

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Katie Hoff continues her Australian series, three and a half weeks postpartum, sitting down with world champion and Australian record holder Sam Short. He just swept the distance triple, the four hundred, eight hundred, and fifteen hundred free, at both Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs, and broke Grant Hackett's twenty five year old Australian record in the fifteen hundred along the way. So what does it actually feel like to become the swimmer you grew up idolizing. Sam breaks down how data driven his training really is: stopwatch splits, heart rate, lactate readings, and a descending set of 400, 500, 400, 300, 200, and 100 he did weeks before Commonwealth Games with barely any rest between reps. He walks through going out in 742 at trials in the 800 free, blowing up, and still going 1442, then analyzes what it would take to close the gap on the current fastest 1500 swimmers in the world. Katie digs into the recovery side too, and how much he actually trusts data there compared to straight performance numbers. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews don't: getting disqualified out of an Australian club relay record after a teammate left early, a surf lifesaving background that has him doing beach carnivals every season, a post meet stretch in LA that included a bar owned by a friend of Cody Simpson and, by his own admission, a full week without much sleep, and an ongoing love of homemade spaghetti bolognese he cooks himself three or four times a week. He also admits his first few months living alone came with a washer and no dryer, forcing him to haul laundry home to dry it. Underneath the racing talk is a real look at resetting after a rough Olympic year. Sam is candid that his home Games did not go to plan, and that the version of himself now, more rested, more recovered, and seeing a sports psychologist regularly, is a deliberate rebuild rather than an accident. It is a comeback mindset conversation that lands especially well with Katie, who is working through her own version of that reset with a newborn at home. Whether you're a swimmer chasing a record that once felt untouchable or someone who has never touched a pool but loves a good underdog turned favorite story, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what is one belief about your limits that a single result completely rewrote? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this was recorded shortly after Sam's celebration stretch in LA, before he resumed full training for his home short course trials, so his prep timeline may look different by the time this episode airs. FOLLOW SAM SHORT ON: Instagram: @_sam_short SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #SamShort #KatieHoff #AustralianSwimming

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Katie Hoff is back hosting, recording fifteen days postpartum and launching a new run of episodes with Australian swimmers. Her first guest is Olympic champion, world champion, and world record holder Mollie O'Callaghan, who made the gutted call to pull out of the Pan Pacific Championships after stress fractures turned up in her back right before Trials. So how do you walk away from a full season of work and still call that choice smart. Mollie walks through the process: seeing a back specialist, checking in with him repeatedly between Trials and the Commonwealth Games, and getting cleared to race modified instead of sitting out. She still logged a time Katie calls legendary despite the injury, before referral pain and stalled progress ruled out Pan Pacs. She never watched the actual racing, tracking results instead to support the thirteen teammates who competed, and framing every meet, missed or not, as a stepping stone toward LA 2028. She and Katie also cover the altitude tent she trialed for the first time this season under coach Dean, sleeping through three blocks built around a Flagstaff base, a Darwin camp, and the run into Trials. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews don't: dislocating her knee the first week back after her Olympic year break, buying and moving into a new apartment mostly alone while her family was overseas, badly learning to drive a manual car and bunny hopping through it, and choking on candy behind the blocks with a teammate before a final at the 2022 World Championships. She calls herself a workhorse who trains the same way she has since age fourteen, and admits Dean often has to rein her in. Underneath the racing talk is a real look at what intensity costs her. She now sees a sports psychologist weekly, calls herself a nervous racer whose nerves show, and is candid that the Trials before her home Olympics were the worst meet she has ever experienced mentally, glad in hindsight it happened there and not at the Games. Staying process focused instead of outcome fixated is ongoing work, and it lands differently coming from Katie, relearning her own version of balance with a newborn at home. Whether you're a swimmer rebuilding a season around an injury or someone who has never touched a pool but loves a good comeback story, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what is one setback you have reframed as a stepping stone instead of a loss? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: at the time of this recording, Mollie's return timeline was still open, with Short Course Worlds and the end of September Australian Trials as her key checkpoints, so her comeback status may look different by the time this episode airs. FOLLOW MOLLIE O'CALLAGHAN ON: Instagram: @mollie_ocal SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS endlesspools.com/unfiltered to unlock $1,000 off #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #MollieOCallaghan #KatieHoff

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Elizabeth Beisel and Todd Anderson fill in for Katie Hoff, a week from having her baby girl, and sit down with Team USA breaststroker McKenzie Siroky right before the Pan Pacific Championships. She's coming off a personal best in the 100 breast at nationals, capping two hard months when her stroke feel vanished. She tracks nearly every metric of her training. So how does one of the most data driven swimmers on the team find her way back by feeling instead of measuring? McKenzie ranks her outside of pool priorities: nutrition first, then recovery and sleep, then mental work like meditation and breath control with a sports psychologist she calls Dr. Joe. She wears a Whoop and has hit strain scores over 20, though she ignores it on race day, going best times in yellow and red. Her best lift is a 195 pound bench, chasing 200 right after Pan Pacs. Todd asks about the suit that ripped fifteen minutes before her nationals final, and she walks through the breathing reset that got her back on the block. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews don't: hosting the team for Saturday pancake brunches off her Blackstone griddle, thirty pancakes at a time, plus wood fired pizza nights with homemade sourdough crust. She traces her breaststroke to family history, her mom swam at Michigan State too. She and teammate Moana treat practice like an actual race, speaker on the deck included, to rehearse the nerves. She admits she doesn't always know what a lactate based target split is supposed to feel like, she just trusts it and goes. Underneath the technical talk is a real account of what it costs to lose your feel for the thing you're best at. McKenzie describes two months so frustrating she was near tears most practices, calling her aunt and dad from the car to find one thing to control each day. The fix wasn't more structure, it was less: slower practice, no intervals, feeling her stroke again instead of measuring it. It's a lesson that lands harder given how much of her identity runs on tracking numbers, a contradiction Elizabeth is well suited to draw out of her. Whether you're a swimmer who tracks every number in training or someone who has never touched a pool but loves a good return to form story, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what's one thing you've learned to control when everything else feels like it's slipping? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this conversation was recorded ahead of the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships, so McKenzie's answers reflect where her head was heading into the meet, not how the racing actually went. FOLLOW MCKENZIE SIROKY ON: Instagram: @kenzie_siroky #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #McKenzieSiroky #ElizabethBeisel #TennesseeSwimming

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Elizabeth Beisel and Todd Anderson fill in for Katie Hoff, about a week out from giving birth, and sit down with Olympic medalist Katharine Berkoff right before the Pan Pacific Championships. She's coming off a hard lesson in Singapore last year: getting sick and having to trust her training instead of her control. The 100 back is the race she says has her heart. So what does it take to let go of what you can't control and still call it a successful meet? Katharine breaks down swimming straight outdoors: staying close enough to the lane line to catch it in her peripheral vision, turning her head side to side when wind kicks up chop. Her Pan Pacs lineup is the 50 and 100 back plus relays, and the 100 is the one she trains hardest for. She tried Pilates for the first time before a meet in Indianapolis, and a reformer session left her shaking on the easiest setting. Elizabeth asks when wind becomes a real problem, and Katharine has a clear answer. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews don't: adopting a kitten named Chowder, already famous for chaos in the car; her dad's hobby of tracking mountain lions, including the time he followed a blood trail to a kill site and got stalked back himself, pistol in pocket just in case; and her plans for her next backpacking trip. Asked about that goal, she brings up a hiker who got impaled by his own trekking pole and hiked out with it still in him, admitting that unlike her father, she is not a risk taker. Underneath the racing talk is a real reckoning with legacy and self trust. Katharine is candid about her father, Olympian David Berkoff, admitting they rarely talk swimming, and that his brief stint coaching her ended fast because his input frustrated her. She traces her stubborn self belief to making her first sectional cut at nine, and to when it first wavered at Junior Nationals, watching girls already on the national junior team. Her fix, then and now, is trusting her process looks nothing like anyone else's. It's a thread that lands harder coming from Elizabeth. Whether you're a swimmer learning to trust your own process or someone who has never touched a pool but loves a good father daughter story, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what's something you've had to let go of to actually enjoy competing? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this conversation was recorded before the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships, so Katharine's answers reflect where her head was heading into the meet. By the time this episode airs, the meet itself will already be over. FOLLOW KATHARINE BERKOFF ON: Instagram: @KatharineBerkoff #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #KatharineBerkoff #ElizabethBeisel #PanPacs2026

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Elizabeth Beisel and Todd Anderson fill in for Katie Hoff, about a week out from giving birth to her daughter, and sit down with Emma Weyant ahead of the Pan Pacific Championships. It has been a strange year for her: a full training block with no Olympic Trials to break it up, and one of the hardest, most rewarding stretches of her career. So what does it take to trust a year of work you haven't gotten to prove yet? Emma walks through the overhaul that has reshaped her stroke work: heavier backstroke sets on power days, sometimes pulling backstroke with buckets while everyone else swims freestyle, a callback to band sets from her club days. Adding Pilates to dryland has helped her mobility and eased some hip issues. At Pan Pacs she's swimming the 400 free and 200 IM, training the 400 free daily alongside Katie Ledecky after a 4:07 at Fort Lauderdale. Todd asks her to name the biggest change, and backstroke is the answer without hesitation. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews don't: her walkout song pick of Getaway Car by Taylor Swift, a Shake Shack double cheeseburger with bacon as her cheat meal, a deep dive into hair care science that has her dreaming up a chlorine specific product line, and getting talked into her first spray tan by Katie Ledecky. She admits she still hasn't gotten the TikTok color analysis everyone keeps pushing her toward, joking she can never tell gold from silver when the trend hits her feed. Underneath the training talk is a real reckoning with what comes next. Emma graduated in August, studied for the LSAT, did well, then chose to push law school back a year rather than close the door on swimming. She's leaning into a word her coach repeats to her, courage, separating it from confidence: one is doing something bold and unexpected, the other comes from consistency and trust. She traces that shift to a breakthrough race in Fort Lauderdale a year ago, when she stopped chasing her old self and started building someone new. It's a shift Elizabeth is well positioned to draw out of her. Whether you're a swimmer trying to figure out your own next chapter or someone who has never set foot on a pool deck but loves a good identity story, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what's the difference between courage and confidence in your own life right now? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this conversation was recorded ahead of the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships, so Emma's answers reflect where her head was heading into the meet, not how the racing actually went. FOLLOW EMMA WEYANT ON: Instagram: @emmaweyant #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #EmmaWeyant #ElizabethBeisel #FloridaSwimming

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Elizabeth Beisel and Todd Anderson, Katie Hoff's husband, fill in a week before she gives birth, sitting down with Olympic medalist Katie Grimes ahead of the Pan Pacific Championships. She's coming off a national title in the 1500 free, but at Pan Pacs she's skipping that race for the 10K open water, an event she hasn't swum in two years and chose to bring back herself. So why give up your best event for one that takes almost two hours and offers no second chance? Katie explains the swap: a strong stretch of endurance training made this the year to add the 10K back on, even with a tight turnaround into the 400 IM just 36 hours later. Her taper barely changes, since her UVA coaches know she doesn't need much of one. There's no cool down after a 10K, so she refuels, sleeps, and flushes it out with an easy swim that afternoon. Todd asks how that back to back double gets managed, and Katie walks through the turnaround. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews don't: designing her own Jolyn swimsuit line and watching friends raid the sample box in her room, the wildlife she's actually spotted swimming open water, turtles and snakes, no sharks thankfully, and an off day hunting for good shopping in Huntington Beach. She admits her pre race mindset for a two hour open water swim is the opposite of an 800: instead of psyching herself up, she's trying to find her Zen before her mind starts wandering. Underneath the race talk is a real shift in how Katie relates to her own training. She used to answer every question about her workload with I don't care, and walks through learning to actually ask her coach for more, an extra practice, an extra set, once she trusted what her body needed. She frames it as advice for younger swimmers too: that relationship has to stay open, because what works for you changes once you get to college. It's a lesson that lands differently coming from Elizabeth, who's lived that same transition herself. Whether you're a swimmer trying to figure out how to actually talk to your coach or someone who's never done a lap but is curious what it takes to swim for two hours straight, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what's one thing you've had to learn to ask your coach for? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this conversation was recorded ahead of the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships, so Katie's answers reflect where her head was heading into the meet, not how the racing actually went. FOLLOW KATIE GRIMES ON: Instagram: @_katie.grimes_ #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #KatieGrimes #ElizabethBeisel #PanPacs2026

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Elizabeth Beisel and Todd Anderson, Katie Hoff's husband, fill in a week before she gives birth, sitting down with Olympic medalist Alex Walsh ahead of the Pan Pacific Championships. She's coming off a nationals 200 IM she's proud of and has added the 400 IM back into her lineup after years away. It has been a strange stretch: a birthday time trial, and months earlier, the roughest meet of her career. So how does a veteran who has quietly weighed walking away talk herself into wanting one more shot? Alex traces the reset that followed March's China Open, the worst meet of her career, when she panic texted her coach Todd about pulling her races mid meet. Afterward she overhauled her training: more endurance work, a lift program rebuilt into a circuit style boot camp, and hot yoga and Pilates in Charlottesville. She's chasing a best time in the 400 IM at Pan Pacs after testing the distance in that birthday trial. Elizabeth presses her on what shifted, and Alex traces it to one blunt conversation with her coach. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews don't: living with her sister Gretchen Walsh, who has appointed herself thermostat police over their house's finicky mini split system, and a family joke about slowly buying up an entire Charlottesville street. The best story is a night on Nashville's Broadway, where a professional Luke Combs impersonator, complete with fake security guards, convinced her she had met the real thing. She pulled the Olympian card for a photo, posted it everywhere, then learned the actual Luke Combs was on tour in Australia that night. Underneath the training talk is a real accounting of what almost made her stop. Alex admits the last two years have been her hardest stretch of motivation, watching college friends start new jobs and lives while she felt stuck chasing the same times. She credits one blunt conversation with her coach, telling her to commit fully or step back, with turning a quiet crisis into fresh direction toward another Olympic cycle. It's a reckoning that lands harder coming from Elizabeth, who has sat in that exact seat herself. Whether you're a swimmer wrestling with your own motivation right now or someone who has never touched a pool but loves a good mental comeback story, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what's the one conversation that talked you back into believing in yourself? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this conversation was recorded ahead of the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships, so Alex's answers reflect where her head was heading into the meet, not how the racing actually went. FOLLOW ALEX WALSH ON: Instagram: @alexwalsh7 SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #AlexWalsh #ElizabethBeisel #UVASwimming

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Elizabeth Beisel and Todd Anderson host in Katie Hoff's place while she stays home to welcome her baby girl, sitting down with four time Olympic gold medalist Bobby Finke ahead of the Pan Pacific Championships. It is a different year for him: no Olympic Trials, and a rare full month home in July. He first swam this meet eight years ago. So what does it feel like to chase the same nerves that have carried him to gold every time, on purpose? Bobby explains how this taper differs from years past: he backs off harder than training partner Katie Ledecky, who grinds through heavier mileage in the same buildup, and he stops lifting almost entirely three weeks out. His lineup covers the 400 IM, 800 free, and 1500 free, plus one additional event he is unsure he will swim. He names Sam Short as the rival he most wants to race again after a loss at Westmont. Todd presses him on how differently elite swimmers can prepare for the same meet. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews do not: a team cook off scandal involving coach Anthony Nesty demanding a meatball remake over a bag of salad dressing, an eight month Lego build of Rivendell from The Lord of the Rings running six to seven thousand pieces, and his poodle Phil making a daycare best friend before a post meet trip to Italy with girlfriend Ellie. His signature closing kick is so feared it has become an actual verb on the team, and he admits it still "takes years off my life" every time. Underneath the banter runs a quieter thread about what this life costs. Bobby talks plainly about accepting the nerves never go away, treating them as a sign he is ready rather than something to fix, and just as directly about a schedule that keeps him from his girlfriend and home most of every July. His refusal to swim open water, unless it means a relay leg beside Katie Ledecky, says something about how he weighs the individual grind against being part of a team. It is the kind of easy conversation these hosts are built to have with him. Whether you are a competitive swimmer feeling those pre meet nerves right now or someone who has never touched a pool but loves how elite athletes think, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: what is your version of choosing to feel the nerves instead of trying to make them disappear? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this conversation was recorded ahead of the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships, so Bobby's answers reflect where his head was heading into the meet, not how the racing actually went. FOLLOW BOBBY FINKE ON: Instagram: @robert_finke SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS endlesspools.com/unfiltered to unlock $1,000 off #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #BobbyFinke #ElizabethBeisel #PanPacs2026

In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Todd Anderson hosts alongside Elizabeth Beisel, filling in for Katie Hoff, a week out from giving birth. They sit down with world record holder Kate Douglass, recorded the week before Pan Pacs 2026 and airing during the meet. Her freestyle has surged this season to the point that it now crowds her breaststroke on the schedule. The episode turns on a question she still has not answered: which two events to swim, and whether she can pull off both in one session. Kate's freestyle jumped to a new level this season after she started taking creatine this spring, something she had avoided for years over drug testing concerns. She has also gotten stronger in the weight room, clearing a 65 kilo bench max she was not hitting last fall. Training got complicated too: the AFC pool went out for construction all summer, splitting the group between Colorado and Charlottesville, where Kate trained short course in an 87 degree outdoor pool. Todd also digs into the injury prevention work and Pilates she leans on as recovery gets harder at 24. Along the way, the conversation goes places most swim interviews do not: Kate's imagined UFC walkout song is a One Direction singalong, and her homemade cappuccino order is serious enough that she once paid seventeen dollars for Uber Eats coffee at an LA hotel rather than skip it. The most candid moment is a crash out story from a brutal breaststroke set with training partner Emma Weber, seven straight hundreds after an all out two hundred, where Todd's response was a flat, shut up, you are doing great. She laughs about it now, but it worked. Underneath the training talk is a broader identity thread: Kate reflects on being part of a UVA class, alongside Gretchen Walsh and Claire Curzan, built around taking the weight room as seriously as the water. At 24 she is starting to feel the edges of a longer career, noting swimmers her age already get called the oldest ones on the team, the way Katie Ledecky does. It is a conversation her own coach is uniquely positioned to have with her, since Todd already knows which answers she is still working out. Whether you are a swimmer chasing your own lineup decision or a curious outsider who has never done a flip turn, this episode delivers. Watch the episode, then head to the comments and let us know: if you were in Kate's shoes, would you go for the double at Pan Pacs or lock in on one race? Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media (https://linktr.ee/unfilteredwaters) for clips, bonus content, and updates throughout the week. Note: this episode was recorded the week before Pan Pacs 2026, so Kate's goals and lineup talk reflect where things stood heading into the meet, not how it played out once she got there. FOLLOW KATE DOUGLASS ON: Instagram: @katedouglass SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS dreamrecovery.io use code UNFILTEREDTHIRTY for 30% off IM8health.com/discount/unfiltered for 10% off #UnfilteredWaters #Swimming #KateDouglass #ElizabethBeisel #PanPacs2026