Chase Kalisz

Chase Tyler Kalisz (born March 7, 1994) is an American swimmer who specializes in individual medley events.

Kalisz attended the University of Georgia from 2012 to 2017 and competed for the Georgia Bulldogs swimming and diving team where he was a three-time NCAA Champion and the current American record-holder in the 400-yard individual medley.

Kalisz graduated from Fallston High School in Fallston, Maryland.

In August, at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships conducted at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kalisz was the Junior Pan Pacific champion in both the 200 meter individual medley, where he won the gold medal with a Championships record of 1:59.51, and the 400 meter individual medley, where he won the gold medal in a Championships record time of 4:12.59, as well as a silver medalist in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay with a final relay time of 7:19.89.

Additionally, he placed second in the B-final of the 200 meter freestyle with a 1:51.93 after swimming a 1:50.14 in the preliminaries.

He served as a captain for Team USA at the Championships.

During his first season of collegiate swimming for the Georgia Bulldogs, Kalisz won his first NCAA title in the 400 yard individual medley with a time of 3:38.05 at the 2013 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships.

His swim made him the sixth fastest swimmer in the race in history and the fastest at his age.

Kalisz also set a new school record in the event for the University of Georgia, lowering his former school record by over 1.7 seconds.

Kalisz's qualification for the 2013 World Championships team at the 2013 US National Championships made him the fifth Georgia Bulldog in history to reach that stage of international swimming competition.

He qualified to compete in one event, the 400 meter individual medley, when he won the national title in the event at the year's national championships with a personal best time of 4:11.83.

At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Kalisz won the silver medal in the 400 meter individual medley, finishing with a time of 4:09.22, dropping over two full seconds off his previous best time, and touching the wall less than six tenths of a second behind the gold medal winner, Daiya Seto of Japan.

Kalisz's swims at the US National Championships and World Championships were fast enough for him to make the 2013—2014 national team in both the 200 meter individual medley and the 400 meter individual medley.

In November, Kalisz won USA Swimming's Golden Goggle Award for "Breakout Performer of the Year" for his accomplishments at the international and national levels in 2013.

At the 2014 NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas in March, Kalisz successfully defended his title and broke the American record in the 400 yard individual medley, also called the 400 yard IM, previously set in 2009 by Tyler Clary, with a time of 3:34.50.

In addition to setting a new American record, his time also set new US Open, NCAA, school, and pool records.

Kalisz's coach at the time, Bob Bowman, dubbed Kalisz's third swimming season in college, the 2014–2015 school year, a "pretty terrible third year".

At the 2015 FINA World Championships, Kalisz earned a bronze medal behind Daiya Seto of Japan and Dávid Verrasztó of Hungary in a time of 4:10.05.

In order to prepare for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Kalisz took a gap year from collegiate swimming, the 2015—2016 swim season, so he could focus fully on giving the Olympic Games his all and trained with Michael Phelps under the coaching supervision of Bob Bowman.

At his second Olympic Trials, the 2016 United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Kalisz qualified for his first US Olympic Team, the 2016 Olympic Team, by finishing first in the 400 meter individual medley with a time of 4:09.54.

He finished over one second ahead of second-place finisher Jay Litherland, who also made the US Olympic Team in the event, and over two seconds ahead of third-place finisher Ryan Lochte.

Kalisz also competed in the 200 meter butterfly where he finished fifth with a time of 1:56.64 and the 200 meter individual medley where he was disqualified during his swim.

Kalisz competed in the 400 meter individual medley at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August.

Ahead of his race and excited to compete at his first Olympic Games, Kalisz found one of the best practices for keeping his attention fully on the execution of his swimming prior to the race was leaving his mobile phone on airplane mode.

Come race time, he won the silver medal in the final of the event with a time of 4:06.75 and was flanked in medal standings by two Japanese swimmers, Kosuke Hagino who took the gold medal and Daiya Seto who took the bronze medal.

Kalisz's silver medal was the chronologically first Olympic medal of any kind for the United States in the sport of swimming at the 2016 Olympic Games.

His medal also contributed to the substantial symbolic medal hauls of his home state, Maryland, and his college, University of Georgia.

Swimmers from his home state representing the United States, including himself, won over ten medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Student athletes across all sports from the University of Georgia, a total of 37 athletes and coaches competed including Kalisz, won ten Olympic medals.

Kalisz became the first male swimmer in the history of the university to win an Olympic medal.

Returning to the University of Georgia for his fourth and final year of collegiate swimming, the 2016—2017 swim season, Kalisz won four events including the 100 yard breaststroke, 200 yard butterfly, 200 yard individual medley, and 400 yard individual medley at the 2016 University of Georgia Fall Invitational in December.

His time of 1:40.38 set a new pool record, meaning the fastest time swam in the event at the given pool in history, for the Ramsey Center at the University of Georgia and helped earn him the honor of Southeastern Conference, SEC, "Male Swimmer of the Week".

During his senior year competing for the Georgia Bulldogs, and leading up to the 2017 NCAA Championships, Kalisz swam a 1:41.28 at the 2017 Southeastern Conference, SEC, Championships to set a new SEC Championships record in the event, breaking the record time of 1:41.76 set in 2005 by Ryan Lochte.

The time was also a new pool record for the Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, where the Championships were held, and lasted five years and one day until it was broken by Luca Urlando at the 2022 SEC Championships.

Kalisz won the 400 yard individual medley NCAA title for a third time at the 2017 NCAA Championships, breaking his own American record and setting a new pool record for the Indiana University Natatorium with a time of 3:33.42 in the final.

His swim in the prelims of the same event with a 3:37.18 had also set a new pool record, though the record lasted less than a day as his swim in the final lowered the record by over three seconds.

The pool record he set for the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center stood through the duration of the 2019 NCAA Championships where the fastest swimmer was almost two full seconds off Kalisz's mark.

In his junior year of collegiate swimming for the Georgia Bulldogs, Kalisz placed second in the 400-yard individual medley, behind Texas Longhorns' Will Licon, finishing well off his best time in 3:39.51.

The pool record lasted past the 2019 SEC Championships at the same pool where the fastest swimmer in the preliminaries was over a second slower than Kalisz's time.

He is an Olympic gold medalist in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, an Olympic silver medalist at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and a two-time World Aquatics Championships gold medalist.