
Keri-Anne Payne, Beauty, Brains And Brawn In A Gold Medal Favorite

Focused, quiet and intense before her championship races, Keri-Anne transforms into a media darling as she crawls out of the water after her races. She is personable and accommodating with fans, and remains patience and friendly with the press.
Attractive with a quick smile and twinkle in her eyes, she has the look of a cover girl Olympian and is clearly one of open water swimming’s greatest ambassadors.

A role model as a teammate, she puts in thousands of kilometers of gut-busting workouts, constantly building up lactic acid to almost impossible levels while ignoring the discomfort of endurance training.
From working on the tiny details of streamlined swimming techniques to macro issues such as race tactics and nutrition, she and her coaches leave no stone unturned in preparing for the Olympics as the gold medal favorite.
Keri-Anne‘s signature race tactic is to push the pace right from the start and challenge her competitors to keep up with her. Knowing this tactic in advance, the pressure to perform is transmitted from Keri-Anne to her rivals, creating a psychological edge that plays to her advantage. But since she leads the races from the start, her position at the head of the pack also places additional pressure on her to utilize her exceptionally high navigational IQ. One poor decision on navigation and her competitors can knock her off her pedestal. Even the slightest angle that she may swim off-course is an invitation to others who would gladly pounce on the opportunity.
But while her competition has continued to nip at her heels, they have also stayed behind her. For her navigational skills in the open water are second to none. From buoy to buoy or turn to turn, Keri-Anne is a true mariner, rarely moving off of the straight-line tangent between two points and playing all the elements, from the sun’s glare to the currents, as tools of her trade.

The sport, without a doubt, is physically demanding and rough like a mixture of rugby with marathon running. Elbows get thrown and body blows are given, sometimes intentionally and unintentionally. While tenacity is inherent in her DNA, Keri-Anne is never one to initiate physical contact. However, when faced with a belligerent rival, she also never backs down. Google-to-goggle or shoulder-to-shoulder, she is tough-nosed and uncompromising, confidently backing up her beauty with brains and, occasionally, brawn.
Her analytical approach to training and tough-as-nails approach to racing is what Keri-Anne Payne has come to represent. Armed with a media-friendly personality and smile, she deservedly stands tall among the elite echelon of open water swimmers.
Photo from the 2007 World Swimming Championships where Keri-Anne Payne was swimmer #23 is courtesy of Dr. Jim Miller.
Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source
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