Written by: Gregory Eggert, World
Aquatics Correspondent
Katie Grimes opened the 2023 U.S.
Open Water National Championships in similar fashion to her 2022 performance:
by winning the women’s 10-kilometer title and earning her place to the upcoming
World Aquatics Championships.
Swimming out of the Sandpipers of
Nevada club, the 17-year-old Grimes pulled away over the last lap to win in 1
hour 58.08 seconds at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida.
Several different athletes animated
the front of the race in the earlier laps, including international swimmers
from Japan and Spain before Grimes and her Sandpipers of Nevada teammate Claire
Weinstein moved into their positions in the fifth and final lap of the race.
Heading into the last 300m, Grimes
broke away to secure a 15-second margin of victory in defending her national
10km title. Behind, it was a photo finish for second place.
Following the Las Vegas native to the
finish line was Mariah Denigan of the Indiana (University) Swim Club and her
club teammate Grimes’ Sandpiper teammate, Claire Weinstein. The lead pack in the final sprint also
included Americans Kensey McMahon, Ashley Twichell, and Maria De Valdes of
Spain.
For Twitchell, her fourth-place
finish marked the former world medallist and Tokyo 2020 Olympian’s return to
competition less than a year after giving birth to her first child.
Win and You’re In | A Fukouka 2023
Qualifying Event
The winner of both the men’s and
women’s 10km events automatically earned a spot on the U.S. team for this
year’s World Aquatics Championships, with each winner earning the opportunity
to race both the 5km and 10km open water swimming events in Fukuoka.
At last year’s World Aquatics
Championships – Budapest 2022, Grimes won silver medals in the 1500m freestyle
and the 400m individual medley. She also finished fifth in the 10K open water
swim in Budapest.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Grimes
was the youngest member of Team USA and finished fourth in the 800m freestyle.
Post-Race Reflections with the Champ
| Conversation with Katie Grimes
Congrats on winning the women’s 10km
and being the first American to earn a ticket to the World Aquatics
Championships.
Thanks. Yes, I am going to
Fukuoka! You can't count on anything
until you qualify. It was a bit of a
tough race just because of the tough field in today's race. It was very tight
for a long time, and I wasn't really expecting that. I just tried to stay calm and to keep
strategizing.
Compare yourself to the Katie Grimes
from one year ago.
I definitely learned a lot more
especially when it comes to open water swimming. Every race you swim is something that I learn
from. I have a couple more 10ks under my
belt this year. There are a few tricks
that I had going into this race that I didn't have last year. There's an advantage to having that
experience.
When did you start training for open
water?
I swam open water when I was pretty
young. Our coach, Sandpipers of Nevada
Swim Coach Ron Aitken took us to swim at Castaic Lake in California. We started in some 2.5K and 3K races and
worked up to longer races. My first open
water nationals was in 2019 when I was 13 years old. I was in awe watching Haley Anderson (2012
Olympic Silver medalist) and Ashely Twichell do their thing and it really
inspired me.
What’s the appeal of open water
swimming?
It's definitely different and that is
one thing that draws me to it. I like
the aspect of just being creative about how you swim your race. It's how you plan it, and how you strategize
it, and how you react to things. You can
use these aspects in the pool as well, especially staying calm and staying
focused.
What’s your favourite race, both in
the pool and in open water?
It changes all the time, but right
now it's the 200 fly. My favourite open
water event is definitely the 10k – the 5k is too quick for me – but the 10K
gives me more time to relax and get into it.
What have you been working on to
improve?
I have been working on just being
able to be OK with being uncomfortable;
I am getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. I am learning to be OK with not having
control. I am trying to be able to react
calmly to things.
What’s your most memorable open water
swimming experience?
Getting to race with people that I
have looked up to like Haley Anderson and Ashley Twichell. I remember growing up watching them swim and
idolizing them. It's inspiring to be in
the same event as Ashley who less than a year ago gave birth to a baby and is
back in the water. It's really
incredible to see her racing so well after taking so much time off to deliver
and to raise a child.
What are your goals for this season?
My goal is just to keep training and
working hard. Hopefully, our USA Trials
(for pool swimming) go really well and I will be able to have the best of both
worlds (racing in pool and also open water events) at World Championships in
Fukuoka. I hope that our training goes
well. We have a couple of tough training
blocks coming up but I am excited to swim in Fukuoka.
Postscript
Grimes concluded the third and final
day of the US Open Water Championships by winning the Women's 5 km, finishing
in 58 minutes 37.95 seconds.
“It was just about getting
experience,” Grimes said on her takeaways from winning two national titles in
Sarasota. “Pretty much every open water race, experience is what I try and get
from it and take to the next race. I feel like I now have a lot of tricks under
my belt that I can use next time.”
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