2012: Junior Pan Pacific champion In August, at the
2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships conducted at the
Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in
Honolulu, Hawaii, Kalisz was the Junior Pan Pacific champion in both the 200 meter individual medley, where he won the gold medal with a
Championships record of 1:59.51, and the 400 meter individual medley, where he won the gold medal in a Championships record time of 4:12.59, as well as a silver medalist in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay with a final relay time of 7:19.89. Additionally, he placed second in the B-final of the 200 meter freestyle with a 1:51.93 after swimming a 1:50.14 in the preliminaries. His swim made him the sixth fastest swimmer in the race in history and the fastest at his age. He qualified to compete in one event, the 400 meter individual medley, when he won the national title in the event at the year's national championships with a personal best time of 4:11.83. Kalisz's swims at the US National Championships and World Championships were fast enough for him to make the 2013—2014 national team in both the 200 meter individual medley and the 400 meter individual medley. In November, Kalisz won
USA Swimming's
Golden Goggle Award for "Breakout Performer of the Year" for his accomplishments at the international and national levels in 2013.
2014: Defending the 400 IM NCAA title 2014 NCAA Championships At the
2014 NCAA Championships in
Austin, Texas in March, Kalisz successfully defended his title and broke the
American record in the 400 yard individual medley, also called the 400 yard IM, previously set in 2009 by
Tyler Clary, with a time of 3:34.50. In addition to setting a new American record, his time also set new US Open, NCAA, school, and pool records. The pool record he set for the
Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center stood through the duration of the
2019 NCAA Championships where the fastest swimmer was almost two full seconds off Kalisz's mark.
2015: A galloping Georgia Bulldog 2015 NCAA Championships In his junior year of collegiate swimming for the
Georgia Bulldogs, Kalisz placed second in the 400-yard individual medley, behind
Texas Longhorns'
Will Licon, finishing well off his best time in 3:39.51. Kalisz's coach at the time,
Bob Bowman, dubbed Kalisz's third swimming season in college, the 2014–2015 school year, a "pretty terrible third year".
2016 US Olympic Trials At his second Olympic Trials, the
2016 United States Olympic Trials in
Omaha, Nebraska, Kalisz qualified for his first US Olympic Team, the
2016 Olympic Team, by finishing first in the 400 meter individual medley with a time of 4:09.54. He finished over one second ahead of second-place finisher
Jay Litherland, who also made the US Olympic Team in the event, and over two seconds ahead of third-place finisher
Ryan Lochte. Ahead of his race and excited to compete at his first Olympic Games, Kalisz found one of the best practices for keeping his attention fully on the execution of his swimming prior to the race was leaving his
mobile phone on
airplane mode. Come race time, he won the silver medal in the final of the event with a time of 4:06.75 and was flanked in medal standings by two Japanese swimmers,
Kosuke Hagino who took the gold medal and
Daiya Seto who took the bronze medal. Kalisz's silver medal was the
chronologically first Olympic medal of any kind for the United States in the sport of swimming at the 2016 Olympic Games. His medal also contributed to the substantial symbolic medal hauls of his home state,
Maryland, and his college, University of Georgia. Swimmers from his home state representing the United States, including himself, won over ten medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
2016 Fall Invitational Returning to the University of Georgia for his fourth and final year of collegiate swimming, the 2016—2017 swim season, Kalisz won four events including the 100 yard breaststroke, 200 yard butterfly, 200 yard individual medley, and 400 yard individual medley at the 2016 University of Georgia Fall Invitational in December. His time of 1:40.38 set a new pool record, meaning the fastest time swam in the event at the given pool in history, for the Ramsey Center at the
University of Georgia and helped earn him the honor of
Southeastern Conference, SEC, "Male Swimmer of the Week". The pool record lasted past the 2019 SEC Championships at the same pool where the fastest swimmer in the preliminaries was over a second slower than Kalisz's time. The time was also a new pool record for the Jones Aquatic Center in
Knoxville, Tennessee, where the Championships were held, and lasted five years and one day until it was broken by
Luca Urlando at the 2022 SEC Championships. Kalisz won the 400 yard individual medley NCAA title for a third time at the
2017 NCAA Championships, breaking his own American record and setting a new pool record for the
Indiana University Natatorium with a time of 3:33.42 in the final. His swim in the prelims of the same event with a 3:37.18 had also set a new pool record, though the record lasted less than a day as his swim in the final lowered the record by over three seconds. He became the sixth swimmer in NCAA history to win the title in the men's 400 yard individual medley three or more times, with the previous person, Tim Siciliano, achieving the feat in 2001. He also finished third in the 200 meter butterfly with a time of 1:54.79, missing the World Championship team in that event by less than three tenths of a second. Less than two weeks after the award winners were revealed and Kalisz won neither Golden Goggle Award, he won the "Male American Swimmer of the Year" award from
Swimming World.
2019: Breaststroke classic dreams At the 2019 Atlanta Classic in
Atlanta, Kalisz took second place in the 100 meter breaststroke with his time of 1:01.96, qualified for the event at the 2020 US Olympic Trials, and finished as one of only two swimmers in the final to swim the race in less than 1:02.00, the other being
Caeleb Dressel of the
Florida Gators.
2021: Turning Olympic silver into gold 2020 US Olympic Trials In June 2021 at the
2020 US Olympic Trials in
Omaha, Nebraska, Kalisz earned a spot on his second US Olympic Team on the first night of competition in the 400-meter individual medley. Looking forward to the chance to win an Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley after winning a silver medal in the event at the 2016 Olympic Games, Kalisz expressed he was grateful for the extra training time the
COVID-19 pandemic provided, saying, "I don't want to say I wasn't prepared last year, because I was. But I'm 27 now. My body needs rest a lot more than it ever has." Additionally, Kalisz made the US Olympic Team in the 200-meter individual medley by placing second in the event behind
Michael Andrew with his time of 1:56.97, making the 2020 Summer Olympics the first Olympic Games for which Kalisz qualified to compete in more than one event. His time improved upon his 1:59.72 from the
2020 U.S. Open Swimming Championships, where he won the gold medal in the event.
2020 Summer Olympics At the
2020 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo, Kalisz won gold in the
400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:09.42 on day two of competition. His medal was the first
medal for the
United States at the Olympic Games in any sport. Before Kalisz won his gold medal, the United States had won no medals for the 2020 Olympics, including no medals on day one of competition, which was the longest the U.S. had gone without winning a single medal at an Olympic Games since 49 years earlier at the
1972 Summer Olympics. Taking his silver medal performance from the 2016 Olympic Games and turning it into a gold medal performance where he made the first Olympic medal the United States won in 2021 a gold medal, Kalisz had only good things to say, "The U.S. has a proud legacy in the 400m individual medley. This was my redemption story." The occurrence of his winning the gold medal combined with American teammate
Jay Litherland winning the silver medal in the 400 meter individual medley marked an improvement in the performance of the duo of Americans entered in the event over the previous two Olympic Games where the next best performance from two Americans was Ryan Lochte winning the gold medal and Michael Phelps finishing in fourth place at the 2012 Olympics. His medal also contributed to the five medal haul for former and current University of Georgia swimmers, coached by
Jack Bauerle, on the second day of swimming competitions. The victory was also a personal triumph for Kalisz who overcame a shoulder injury from 2019 to win his gold medal. For his swim that transcended the sport of swimming and made him the literal Olympic medal, and gold medal, leader (
chronologically first medal winner) for the United States across all sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics, as well as overcoming personal hardship and injury to achieve the gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley, Kalisz received nominations for the
USA Swimming Foundation's
Golden Goggle Awards for "Male Race of the Year" and "Male Athlete of the Year". On the fifth day of competition, Kalisz ranked fourth overall with a time of 1:57.38 in the prelims heats of the
200-meter individual medley and qualified for the semifinals. His semifinal swim ranked him sixth in his semifinal heat and did not advance him to the final in the event. While Kalisz did not medal in the 200 meter individual medley, his times in the event from January through August 2021 as well as his times in the 400 meter individual medley earned him a spot on the 2021—2022 US National Team in each event. Additionally, Kalisz's one total medal accounted for one of the eleven medals won by the 27 University of Georgia student athletes, past and present, across all sports who competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics and represented twelve different countries.
International Swimming League In the inaugural
2021 ISL draft, Kalisz was selected 17th overall by the
Aqua Centurions.
2022 Pro Swim Series – San Antonio In the prelims heats of the 100 meter breaststroke at the 2022
Pro Swim Series, held at
Northside Swim Center in
San Antonio, Texas, on day two, Kalisz qualified for the final ranking sixth with a time of 1:01.90. For the final, he tied his personal best time of 1:01.64 and placed sixth. Day three prelims, he swam a 1:59.99 in the 200 meter butterfly, qualifying for the final ranking first, and a 2:14.40 in the 200 meter breaststroke, qualifying for the final ranking second. He won the 200 meter butterfly final with a 1:56.79 and placed third in the final of the 200 meter breaststroke with a 2:12.47. In the preliminary heats of the 200 meter individual medley on the fourth and final day, he qualified for the final ranking fourth with a 2:00.65, which was 1.05 seconds behind first-ranked Michael Andrew and 0.79 seconds behind third-ranked
Shaine Casas. Kalisz placed third in the final with a 1:57.10, finishing less than half a second behind Shaine Casas and
Léon Marchand.
2022 International Team Trials Starting off the
2022 US International Team Trials in
Greensboro, North Carolina, on day one, Kalisz advanced to the final of the 200 meter butterfly with a time of 1:56.04 and overall rank of third in the prelims heats. In the final, he finished in 1:56.03, placing fourth. He ranked first overall in the preliminary heats of the 400 meter individual medley two days later, qualifying for the final with a time of 4:13.24. With a time of 4:10.50 in the final, he placed second a little over a second behind first-place finisher
Carson Foster. The fifth and final day, he swam a 1:58.15 in the prelims heats of the 200 meter individual medley to qualify for the final ranking first. He won the final with a 1:56.21, qualifying for the
2022 World Aquatics Championships team in the event. His second-place finish in the 400 meter individual medley also earned him a spot in the event on the team.
2022 World Championships At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, Kalisz ranked third in the preliminary heats of the
400 meter individual medley on day one of
swimming competition with a 4:10.32, advancing to the final behind first-ranked Léon Marchand and second-ranked Carson Foster. In the evening final, the trio repeated their ranking from the preliminaries with Kalisz winning the bronze medal in 4:07.47, Léon Marchand winning the gold medal, and Carson Foster winning the silver medal. Three days later, he ranked second in the morning preliminaries of the
200 meter individual medley with a time of 1:58.25 and qualifying for the semifinals. Dropping 1.49 seconds from his preliminaries time in the evening semifinals, he qualified for the final ranking fourth. He placed fourth in the final with a time of 1:56.43, finishing 0.21 seconds behind bronze medalist
Daiya Seto of Japan. Following his performances, he was named to the 2022
Duel in the Pool roster.
2022 U.S. Open Championships Day two of the
2022 U.S. Open Swimming Championships, held in Greensboro in November and December, Kalisz won the gold medal in the 200 meter individual medley with a
Championships record time of 1:56.52, which was 2.62 seconds ahead of silver medalist Baylor Nelson and 3.37 seconds ahead of bronze medalist
Daniel Diehl. The next day, he followed up with a gold medal in a Championships record time of 4:10.09 in the 400 meter individual medley. For the final of the 200 meter breaststroke on the fourth and final day, he won the silver medal with a time of 2:10.10, which was just 0.20 seconds slower than his personal best time of 2:09.90 from 2018.
2024 2024 Summer Olympics At the
2024 Summer Olympics in
Paris, he missed the
finals of the event after an 11th-place finish in this morning's prelims. Kalisz swam to a 4:13.36, about two seconds off of the 4:11.52 that it took to qualify for finals. ==International championships==