Unfiltered Waters

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.
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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

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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

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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

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endlesspools.com/unfiltered to unlock $1,000 off

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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

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