Unfiltered Waters

Katie Hoff
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  • Swimming
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Welcome to the Unfiltered Waters Podcast, where we dive deep into the untold stories of athletes. Our podcast is led by the wisdom, experience, and perspective of Olympic Medalist Katie Hoff. Join us as we journey through the lives of athletes, showcasing their triumphs, challenges, and the unfiltered reality of what it takes to become a champion. We invite you to partner with us on this inspiring and impactful venture. 

  1. 2 hr ago

    Mollie O'Callaghan

    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

    Mollie O'Callaghan

  2. 4 days ago

    Mckenzie Siroky

    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

    Mckenzie Siroky

  3. 6 days ago

    Katharine Berkoff

    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

    Katharine Berkoff

  4. 25 Aug

    Emma Weyant

    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

    Emma Weyant

  5. 23 Aug

    Katie Grimes

    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

    Katie Grimes

  6. 21 Aug

    Alex Walsh

    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

    Alex Walsh

  7. 19 Aug

    Bobby Finke

    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

    Bobby Finke

  8. 17 Aug

    Kate Douglass

    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

    Kate Douglass
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About

Welcome to the Unfiltered Waters Podcast, where we dive deep into the untold stories of athletes. Our podcast is led by the wisdom, experience, and perspective of Olympic Medalist Katie Hoff. Join us as we journey through the lives of athletes, showcasing their triumphs, challenges, and the unfiltered reality of what it takes to become a champion. We invite you to partner with us on this inspiring and impactful venture. 

Information

  • Creator
    Katie Hoff
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    151
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Unfiltered Waters
  • Show Website
    Unfiltered Waters

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