Champions Chat | Checking in with Australia's golden freestyler Lani Pallister

MELBOURNE – We caught up with Lani Pallister right after her post-race podium ceremony where - fittingly - Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser bestowed gold on the 20-year-old Sydney native following her dominating performance in the 1500m freestyle. 

Pallister was on another level on Friday night, lapping some of her finals rivals before stopping the clock at 15 minutes and 21.43 seconds. Her swim put her more than 25 seconds clear of the field as Pallister set the Australian record in the event in the process. 

Friday was actually the fourth time Pallister has stood atop the podium here in Melbourne. She opened the championships with a victory in the 400m freestyle final on Tuesday. Pallister then followed this up with a win in the 800m freestyle and anchored the Australian women's 4x200m freestyle relay team to the new World Record of 7:30.87  

Congrats, Lani. You’re the first woman to win three individual freestyle gold medals at a FINA World Swimming Championships.

As an athlete, I don’t think you look at those sort of things. We all come here to race because we love racing and we love the adrenaline of getting up behind the blocks and putting our work on the line and showing what we've done in the pool back at home at training before we get to these sorts of meets so having that sort of accolade is really cool.

But coming away from this meet, I'm really proud of myself and the place that I've come from to get to where I am racing now and I can't wait to improve upon that going forward into the long course season next year.

I think a little bit I was a little bit shocked at how I swam in the 4x200m relay and that the coaches put faith in me to go and anchor that. I think I swam a 1:52.2 which is insane for me. I think that's the fastest I've ever been in a 200m.

So, it was nice having that sort of speed and knowing that my endurance work had been there. Anyway, I was hoping for under 15:20, but with the week that I've had and the program that I've had, I am happy with the time. Definitely. I can't wait to race it again in the future and see what else we can improve on.

In short course, the 1500m is 59 turns How do you master this?

I don't think I've mastered it by any means. I'm probably going to get in trouble for my Biomet going home. I am definitely a 50, I love the 50m pool. I think it's a lot easier as a distance only to get into a rhythm and kind of just lengthen out a little bit more. I think it's hard when you have the 25m come up so quickly and then you have to do another turn.

I mean, I barely kick so my legs blob up relatively quickly anyway considering I don't use them that often so turns kind of hinder it a little bit but it also helps in terms of it's not as hard to swim it as a short course pool but each to their own.

Everyone's got a different speciality. I think regardless of if you're swimming long course or short course, doing the 1500m it's just an insane event.

How hard is it to stay motivated when you get tired?

I end up playing little mind games with myself. I look at the psych sheets going in and the time that I kind of wanted to swim, so I knew I was going to be close to almost lapping others in the most polite way possible. You know you have to kind of work off each other and I'm sure Katie Ledecky would do the exact same thing in this situation.

So, I don't think it's a term of motivation. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't motivated to race and do my absolute best. I kind of just put it on the line and was really excited to get in and have a go with that event. It is tough doing it on your own but everyone is in the pool, but everyone's in the same position.

You also won some medals at the lifesaving nationals. It's been a pretty big year.

Yeah, it's been huge. I think I've been away from home for 12 weeks and then I came back for one week went down to Sydney race Short Course Nationals and a Duel in the Pool, came back for three weeks went to Italy for two weeks, trained for maybe 10 weeks and then came back down here.

So, I've pretty much been living out of a suitcase this year. But I'm incredibly grateful to swimming Australia for their support to just send us around the world and do what we love. It's the same with Surf Lifesaving; that was a very spur-of-the-moment trip.

I'd asked Bohl at least six weeks prior to doing it if it was okay and he at that point said no. Then, a week out, he changed his mind and let me go. It was really fun to go over and do that; it took my mind off swimming a little bit and made sure that I was still fresh coming into a meet like this. I'm really happy with how the year has gone. I'm just kind of in awe of how I've been able to peak for the last part of this year.

Contributing: Steve Carsley