Winning a gold medal will be a matter of seconds and centimeters – even in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim that will take up to 2 hours. And few swimmers know that better than Keri-Anne Payne.
She talks about training and, very importantly, sharpening her competitive open water edge at the British Gas Great Swim series.
Swimming strategically and closing fast in the open water requires a much different physiological and psychological effort than simply doing hard interval training in a 50m pool. Like Maarten van der Weijden did during his comprehensive preparation for his gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Keri-anne and her coach Sean Kelly are covering every base so she is optimally prepared on August 9th on the shores of the Serpentine during the Olympic marathon swim.
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.