Katarzyna "Kasia" Wasick (born Wilk; 22 March 1992) is a Polish competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who specializes in sprint freestyle. Wasick represented Poland at the

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2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

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and

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as well as other international meets. She is the fastest female swimmer in Poland holding

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in the 50 and 100 freestyle (short course & long course).

Career

After graduating from high school, Wasick trained in Poland with her brother Robert Wilk at the AZS AWF Katowice swim club before the 2012 Olympics in London. After the Olympic Games she went on to study at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

where she swam for coach Dave Salo for four years. Wasick has shown great individual scoring ability while lending a strong hand on relays. She's a twelve-time All-American and has scored four times individually at the NCAA Championships and is a six-time career Pac-12 finalist. At the 2016 NCAA Championships, she posted career bests with a third in the 100y freestyle. She also led off USC's first place 400y free relay that set a school record. After the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro she retired from swimming due to injury. In 2018 she made a comeback to competitive swimming, first starting with the Las Vegas Masters team. She holds two American masters records in the 50 and 100 freestyle (25-29 age group short course yards records). Later in 2018 she joined the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Pro Group coached by Ben Loorz and Patrick Ota. At the 2020 Olympic Games in

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held in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Wasick placed 5th in the 50m freestyle final. Later that year she won silver medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle as well as bronze medals in the 4x50 m freestyle relay and 4x50m mixed freestyle relay at the

2021 European Short Course Swimming Championships The 2021 European Short Course Swimming Championships (25 m) were held in Kazan, Russia, from 2 to 7 November 2021 at the Palace of Water Sports The Palace of Water Sports (; ) is an indoor aquatics centre in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia which was b ...

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

, Russia. She finished the year earning a bronze medal in 50m freestyle at the 2021 World Short Course Swimming Championships in

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in December. In 2022, she won the silver medal in the 50m freestyle at the

2022 World Aquatics Championships The 2022 World Aquatics Championships, the 19th edition of the FINA World Aquatics Championships, were held in Budapest, Hungary, from 17 June to 3 July 2022. These championships included five disciplines, with high diving not staged for this edi ...

in Budapest becoming the second Polish female swimmer, after

Otylia Jędrzejczak Otylia Jędrzejczak (; born 13 December 1983) is a Polish swimming (sport), swimmer. She was the Olympic champion from 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004 Athens in the 200 metre butterfly stroke, butterfly. She finished 4th in this event in the 2008 Su ...

, to win a long course world championship medal.

International Swimming League

2019

Wasick competed for the

Cali Condors The Cali Condors was a professional swimming club and one of the original eight clubs of the International Swimming League. The team was based in San Francisco led by general manager Jason Lezak and head coach Gregg Troy. Assistant Coaches for th ...

in the

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season of

International Swimming League The International Swimming League (ISL) was an annual professional swimming league, established in 2019. It features a team-based competition format with fast-paced race sessions. In 2019, the regular season started in October and the Final Match ...

and reached the finals at

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. Kasia Wasick swam for the New York Breakers and reached the semi-final. She won three times in the 50 m freestyle at the Solidarity Camp in Budapest. She was drafted to compete for

Toronto Titans Toronto Titans were one of the two new teams for the professional International Swimming League 2020 season, announced in December 2019, taking the total number of teams in the league to ten. Toronto Titans were based in Toronto, Ontario and train ...

as their first pick in the draft.

Personal life

Her father, Zbigniew Wilk, is a former boxer. Kasia has three siblings, two elder brothers who also practice swimming and a sister who competed in track and field. She says her brothers inspired and motivated her to take up swimming. She received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from the

. She currently lives with her husband, Matthew Wasick, in

References

External links