Catherine Kase On Preparing For and Coaching at the Olympics

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This year the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame inducted American pool and open water swimming coach Catherine Kase as an Honor Coach in its Class of 2024.

This year has been a much more relaxing year raising her daughter in Idaho with her husband rather than facing the pressure of preparing athletes for the Olympic Games in Paris.

Catherine Kase Legacy

Ned Denison of the IMSHOF explained her prolific credentials, “Catherine was often the sole woman on the USA Swimming staff and one of its few female head coaches. She traveled the world coached in 16 countries as a 4-time FINA World Championship Head Coach for USA (2009, 2013, 2015, 2019) and a 3-time Olympic Open Water Head Coach (2012 for Tunisia, 2016 and 2021 for the USA). She also served as an Assistant Coach at the FINA World Championships for USA in 2005, 2006, and 2008.“

At the Olympic Games in the 10 km marathon swim, her track record of success was impressive:

2012 (London): gold medal by Oussama Mellouli (personal coach)
2012 (London): silver medal by Haley Anderson (personal coach)
2016 (Rio de Janeiro): 5th by Jordan Wilimovsky
2016 (Rio de Janeiro): 5th by Haley Anderson (personal coach)
2020 (Tokyo): 6th by Haley Anderson (personal coach)
2020 (Tokyo): 7th by Ashley Twichell
2020: 10th by Jordan Wilimovsky

Under her leadership, the USA won the overall open water swimming team title at the 2015 FINA World Championships and never finished lower than 4th in the overall medal count at FINA World Championships between 2009 and 2019. She also served as the USA Head Open Water Coach at the 2006 and 2014 Pan Pacific Championships and the 2007 and 2011 Pan American Games.

She was appointed as a member of World Aquatics Coaches Committee from 2017 and was the past Chairperson of USA Swimming’s Open Water Steering sub-committee from 2016 to 2021 (the first female to hold this position). She was also honored with the 2020 USA Swimming’s Women in Swimming Award.

Kase spoke about her career with us:

DNOWS: How many years prior to London did you start coaching Haley Anderson?

Kase: Haley enrolled as a freshman in the fall of 2009 after making the USA 2009 World Championship team in the pool (1500m freestyle) and competed in Rome while I was there coaching the USA Open Water team.

DNOWS: Was the Olympics her goal from Day One working with you?

Kase: No, but making the US national teams were always part of our discussions, as well as doing well as the Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Championships, and becoming a finalist at the USA Olympic Swimming Trials.

DNOWS: When did Haley’s Olympic dream start?

Kase: When no American women qualified for the 2012 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim at the 2011 FINA World Championships in Shanghai. She was in Shanghai to compete in 25K race. We discussed a new plan where she would have a chance to be in the top 2 at a USA National Championships that would put her on a track to then go to Setúbal, Portugal for the 2012 Olympic marathon swim qualifier and compete to be the top American swimmer and qualify for London.

DNOWS: When you understood her dream, how did you help her achieve it – physically and mentally?

Kase: I just worked with her and the other USC and USA national team coaches to make sure she was getting speed, endurance, race experience. We kept things interesting, challenging, and fun. We had to balance those goals with college competition and school. Haley is a stud.

DNOWS: Did all your different approaches – on the pool deck, at competitions, during travel, before races – work? Or did you refine them over time?

Kase: For over 12 years we worked together. I wore many hats and we evolved and grew together over these years. Sometimes, she needed more guidance and structure. At other times, I just needed to be a friend, a mom, psychologist, travel partner, mentor, and confidante. In 2012 [in her first Olympics], she was only 20. At the 2016 Olympics [in Rio de Janeiro], she was 24, and in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, she was 29 – so as she became more experienced and had different goals, opportunities and challenges, she continued to learn and grow over the years. She also balanced lots of pool swimming, graduated from college swimming, and turned pro which presented new challenges and opportunities. Dave Salo and I were always open and encouraged her to work with other coaches at times (e.g., at high altitude camps and national team camps) and, ultimately, we made sure she was getting what SHE needed.

DNOWS: What worked best for Haley on the pool deck, at competitions, during travel, before races?

Kase: Again, this evolved over time. Where I gave more guidance and structure and taught more in her early years, she was a quick learner and loved to race. I always encouraged her to learn from each success and disappointment, as there are so many things to learn from each open water race. She didn’t need lots of warm-up. We made sure to make travel fun and prioritize her needs, and I always wanted to make things purposeful and challenging with lots of variety in training and her race schedules. She was always open to new ideas and took things seriously.

DNOWS: What do you love about coaching?

Kase: I love helping athletes achieve their goals and dreams and put a plan in action. I loved learning about how they handle struggle and challenges, how they define success, and seeing their smiles. I try to find joy in the process and help build confidence – this doesn’t happen overnight.

DNOWS: What is least desirable about coaching?

Kase: Coaching can be hard on family life. The balance can be a struggle at times.

DNOWS: How important is attention to detail?

Kase: Each athlete is different – managing energy and understanding what YOUR athlete needs is most important for me. So details on what you feed them in a race for one can make or break performance. For other athletes, it may be something entirely different.

DNOWS: How important is looking at the big picture?

Kase: It is all in the process – the ups and downs, the failures and communicating, building a trusting relationship is the most important thing for me. It takes a lot of energy, planning, stress – so as long as I am enjoying what I am doing and the people I am with, that is the BIG picture for me.

DNOWS: How did you handle the successes of your athletes?

Kase: Empower them to talk about each race and what they learned – try to understand their goals and how they define success. Nothing is better than feeling like you helped someone reach their dreams and be on top of the world. The partnership matters to me.

DNOWS: How do you handle when your athletes fail or disappoint themselves?

Kase: Again, talk about it, learn from it, and move on. It is a wasted opportunity if you don’t learn and get better. I also have to look in the mirror and see how I can show up better.

DNOWS: What are important things to share with young coaches who wish to aspire to coach at the Olympics?

Kase: My goal was to help athletes be their best at open water – on a given day if that was at the Olympics, or at a National Championships, or at the World Championships. I had to listen to the athlete and make sure we were aligned. I was paving the way for them to achieve. Work hard, show up, be vulnerable, ask questions, learn from others, and find joy in the process.

DNOWS: Who were your coaching mentors?

Kase: I always collected mentors along the way and still am. But one was there the ENTIRETY of my coaching career and I feel so fortunate to have Jon Urbanchek as a mentor. I also always loved reading books on college coaches – soccer coach Anson Dorrance, and basketball coaches Roy Williams, Dean Smith, and John Wooden – lots of love to my North Carolina Tar Heels.

DNOWS: Do you wish to add anything else?

Kase: It takes a village – and there are many coaches and other staff who supported, challenged and lifted me. I am extremely grateful to my family, and my coaching family. There is life beyond the Olympics and the memories made with people I care about last forever.

Steven Munatones says, “Day in and day out, early in the morning and late at night, whether she was coaching club swimmers, collegiate swimmers at USC, or at the Olympics, Catherine deeply cared for her athletes with a profound understanding of how to help them achieve their full potential – not only in competition, but also later in life.

Beneath her perennial smile lies a fiercely competitive nature, rounded by a soft maternal touch. So when her athletes – male or female – need to hear tough talk, she can give it. But when her athletes need compassion and kindness, she instinctively anticipate those times.

Her gorgeous blue eyes miss nothing and express much.

The only coach at the 2012 London Olympics to personally coach both a male and female marathon swimming medalist, she went 2-for-2 in the Olympic 10K – a gold for Ous Mellouli and a very close silver for Haley Anderson.

Coach Vogt prepares her athletes strategically and tactically in practice so they can execute in the fiercely competitive open water races at the highest level. She exudes confidence that is implicitly understood and utilized by her athletes. She always remains outwardly calm, but retains an intense, internal demeanor on a feeding pontoon, on a pool deck, or onshore. She is a remarkable individual.”

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Catherine Kase On Preparing For and Coaching at the Olympics

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