Meet Floyd, Chase Kalisz’s Bulldog Olympic swimmer

Two-time Olympic medalist Chase Kalisz has a special relationship with his team English BulldogFloyd, who helps him deal with the ups and downs of mental health as a professional athlete. Ahead of Paris 2024, Chase and Floyd have teamed up with Nulo for this Amazing fuel campaign, which highlights the relationship between eight Team USA athletes and their pets.

“The biggest thing Floyd does for me is that it doesn’t matter if I have a good day, a bad day, if I swim well, if I swim bad,” Kalisz tells Daily Paws. “No matter what, I walk through my door, he runs towards me every time, and there’s no better feeling than that in the world. And anyone who has a pet knows how amazing that feeling is. I can just see him and see his excitement and helps me relax, unwind and feel loved.”

Inspiration from Michael Phelps

Kalisz’s passion for English bulldogs stems from childhood, but more specifically, his sibling relationship with Michael Phelps, who is also supposedly pretty good at swimming.

“I grew up training with Michael Phelps when I was very young and he always took his English bulldog Herman to the pool,” Kalisz says.

But Herman didn’t inherit his father’s love of swimming, instead using his training time to get a good nap.

“Herman would slowly walk up to the pool deck in the slowest place he could go, and then he would plop down and sleep by the pool,” Kalisz says. “And then (Phelps) would come out of practice and Herman would be excited and come back.”

Bring Floyd home

Just a handful of years later, Kalisz would become a Bulldog himself by committing to the University of Georgia, home of the Georgia Bulldogs.

“At the time I still wanted a bulldog in my head, and it probably didn’t hurt that I was surrounded by bulldogs and in bulldog land,” Kalisz says.

But Kalisz was patient and waited until he finished school to dive into dog ownership in 2017. Since then, he has been the proud owner of Floyd, a six-year-old English bulldog, who has provided much-needed emotional support to the Olympian during the most stressful and, at times, loneliest years of his life.

“Obviously swimming is not a team sport,” says Kalisz. “My training partners: I really consider them my teammates, but at the end of the day, you have to deal with the blocks and deal with everything on your own. The stress of training, the mental aspect, the competition, it’s all on the line Ye.”

Swimming with Floyd

In addition to regularly relaxing together on the couch, Kalisz has taken Floyd on a couple of aquatic adventures outside the house, including in the pool, just like Phelps and Herman, and at the beach. And it turns out that Floyd may be the most talented swimming bulldog in the history of the breed, showing promise from an early age.

“When Floyd was younger, we had a great daycare in Athens (Georgia),” Kalisz says. “I was there one day, we put him in the training pool and finally he finished I swim all the way. But Floyd hasn’t been much of a swimmer lately, so maybe I’ll get him back in the pool and see where he’s at.”

Paris 2024 Olympics

However, Floyd’s swimming adventures may have to wait until dad returns from the 2024 Summer Olympics. Kalisz is a two-time Olympic medalist, winning silver in 2016 and gold in 2020 in the men’s 400 meter individual medley, and yes he is qualified once again.

And what about Floyd? Well, you can bet he’ll be supporting Dad from afar. “Once I run, it will be with my friends and they will put it in front of the TV,” Kalisz says. “And last time my parents had a party with the NBC cameras, and they got to mention Floyd in the video, so I got to see him briefly.”

But Kalisz won’t feel satisfied until he reunites his favorite pup in person.

“I’m just excited, first of all, to get through the Olympic Games and hopefully represent our country really well and do my best,” Kalisz says. “But I can’t wait to go home. It’s been a really crazy, hectic, very stressful year. I’m really looking forward to going home and spending weeks doing nothing with Floyd and just being with him.”

And make sure you and your dog attend the 2024 Olympics this summer, which begin July 26 in Paris!