Allison Schmitt
6/10/202630 min
In this episode of Unfiltered Waters, Katie Hoff sits down with one of the most decorated swimmers in American history, Allison Schmitt. A four-time Olympian, ten-time Olympic medalist, Olympic champion, former world record holder, and longtime advocate for mental health, Allison reflects on the lessons, challenges, and perspective she has gained throughout an extraordinary career.
From the heartbreak of missing an Olympic final by one one-hundredth of a second in Beijing to becoming one of the stars of Team USA in London, Allison shares how failure shaped her mindset and fueled her success. She opens up about learning to tune out outside noise, embracing pressure, and why her competitive switch never flipped until the moment she hit the water.
The conversation also dives deep into identity, mental health, and the power of feeling understood. Allison reflects on growing up in speech therapy, finding her voice as a female athlete, and why she is passionate about helping the next generation of girls stay in sports and advocate for themselves. She shares the role her support system played during difficult moments, the importance of curiosity, and how coaches can create environments where athletes feel seen, heard, and empowered.
Now retired from competition and recently married, Allison discusses life after swimming, navigating uncertainty, and finding purpose beyond medals and records. Honest, thoughtful, and full of wisdom earned through experience, this is a conversation about resilience, growth, and what it means to keep moving forward long after the races are over.
Whether you are an athlete, coach, parent, or simply navigating your own next chapter, there is something in this episode for you.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKatie Hoff· Host0:00
What's up, you guys? Welcome back to another week and another episode of Unfiltered Waters, and this week we welcome the one and only 10-time Olympic medalist, four-time Olympian, Olympic gold medalist, former world record holder, current American record holder. My gosh, the list goes on. We welcome the legendary and one of my very dear friends, Allison Schmitt, to the pod. And this is a very long overdue episode. I swear, every time that Schmitty is here, I'm there, and it just has never worked out in the last couple years. But thank goodness that she was at the PAC Accelerate event out in Arizona, and shout out to the PAC event, Pro Athletic Community, um, just bringing athletes together, networking. I've talked about it before, um, but it was really cool that Schmitty happened to be there, and we were able to sit down, for not as long as we both wanted. But we were able to sit down and, and just talk through and catch up on so much of, you know, her athletic career, obviously. She just got married. I mean, it's only been six or seven months, and so having been at her wedding, it was fun to k- to kind of catch up around that. Um, you know, talk to her about how she looks back on her career now being a retired athlete, what she's up to now, what she's excited about. Um, also just talking about kind of, you see Schmitty and you know she always has a big smile on her face. She's a huge