At Paris Games, Kate Douglass Seeking Next Step in Sensational Career

At Paris Games, Kate Douglass Seeking Next Step in Sensational Career

Kate Douglass welcomed Kate Douglass to Indianapolis for U.S. Olympic Trials.

If Douglass was feeling pressure as she pondered a four-event program at Trials, seeing her visage rendered stories tall on the side of Lucas Oil Stadium ramped it ever higher.

“When I saw that I was like, oh, wow,” she said. “I really need to make this team.”

It’s a truism, played out again this year on the grandest stage yet, that Olympic Trials is the toughest, most unforgiving meet in the world. For those Americans littering the top-10 world rankings that nonetheless missed the top two at Trials and thus won’t be at the Olympics, the Trials crucible supplied pain and heartbreak. Douglass hopes to turn the pressure she’s survived into purpose.

Douglass is no stranger to the weight of expectations. One of the most decorated NCAA swimmers ever, a 28-time All-American and 15-time NCAA champion, Douglass has navigated the jump from the small pool to long course. Now, after six medals at the 2023 World Championships and five more in 2024, she’s looking to make the leap from international notable to Olympic star.

“I feel like back in 2021, the goal was to make the team,” she said. “And I feel like this time around, the whole year, making the team was part of the process, but we have bigger goals that we want to accomplish in Paris.”

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A Trials on Fire

Douglass is used to being in unique territory. Her college career at Virginia comprised four years of unprecedented versatility that landed All-American nods in sprint freestyle, the individual medley, butterfly and breaststroke. It’s a toss up as to which of her NCAA performances was more outlandish: The 200-treble of the IM, fly and breast in 2023, or golds at both ends of the aerobic spectrum in the 50 free and 200 breast in 2022.

In Indianapolis, she set herself on the path for a fine Trials with her performance in the 100 freestyle, the event that has been the cornerstone of her long-course program. Winning that event on the fifth night of the meet, in 52.66 seconds, guaranteed her place in Paris and as the anchor of America’s relay program. The final was the second of three swims on the day, having set the meet record in the 200 breast in the morning, then finished the night session by coasting through semifinals in that event. Douglass has since bowed out of the 100 freestyle for the Paris Games,.

“Todd (DeSorbo, the UVA and Team USA coach) did make a joke about it, he said let’s give the crowd something to cheer for,” Douglass said. “Usually my plan in the 200 breaststroke is to cruise it, see the lowest count possible that I can do and that was my plan, and I was pacing well in warm-up and Todd was like, I think you should go for it and see what you do. I thought it was a good chance to practice my race strategy before the final, because I thought the semifinal was going to be survival mode after the 100 free.”

She went on to lower the meet record to 2:19.46 in winning the 200 breast the next night, buzzing near her American record of 2:19.30. Those early successes allowed her to choose between the 50 free and 200 IM to end her program. She hewed to the event that brought her Olympic bronze in 2021, one she’ll look to upgrade in Paris alongside teammate Alex Walsh, the UVA duo going 1-2 at Trials.

With that, the first objective in what she hopes is a busy summer was accomplished.

“I obviously had confidence in myself, but it was definitely scary just because I knew a lot of people had expectations for me,” she said. “A lot of people had planned trips to Paris and I was like, I haven’t made it yet, but hopefully that will be fun. So I feel like I did a good job of just trusting the process, trusting Todd and being confident in my ability, that I knew if I swam close to my best times and executed the race how I’ve always done in all three of the races that I swam that I was going to make the team. So I feel like I did a good job of being relaxed and focusing on my race plan and executing that.”

Prepping for Paris

Douglass won’t turn 23 until November. On her second Olympic cycle, she’s already well-versed in international competition, and her racing pedigree in Charlottesville is studded with a penchant for performing whenever the gun goes off.

Douglass netted bronze in her only swim of the Tokyo Games, behind Japan’s Yui Ohashi and Walsh in the 200 IM. Falling between her sophomore and junior seasons at Virginia, it set the stage for her junior year explosion and near invincibility the rest of her college career.

But as consequential a meet for her stature within the American program was the World Championships in Fukuoka two summers later. It may not be remembered all that fondly by the United States – no relay gold medals until the medleys on the final day is not the standard the program has set. But a sense of American resilience in the face of Australian domination early emerged as the meet’s defining storyline, and Douglass’ work on the relays was central to it.

Her split on the end of the 400 free relay jumped the Americans past China and into silver. She held off a bid by the Netherlands to get bronze in the mixed medley and by Great Britain’s European-record squad for silver in the mixed free relay. Douglass never bobbled in the face of Mollie O’Callaghan’s charge on the anchor of the medley relay, securing gold and, by some measure, salvaging the meet for the American women’s program.

Whether or not she won the 100 free at Trials, Douglass was likely to be pushed into a similar anchor role in Paris. Her swim in Indy quiets any speculation to the contrary.

Douglass will have plenty of chances for hardware in Paris. She’s second in the 200 breast, trailing only reigning Olympic champion Tatjana Smith (nee Schoenmaker) of South Africa, and second in the 200 IM, behind Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, though Summer McIntosh and Walsh will likely have something to say.

That event has been a battle for Douglass, who took a break from the IM for about a year before returning to it. She admits it’s one, “I still don’t love” but in which her performance remains undeniable.

“I have definitely been open about how I struggled with the 200 IM,” she said. “I feel like with that event in general, it’s a really hard event. It’s the hardest event I swim, and I just get really scared sometimes before swimming it. Before Tokyo I was in a really bad place with that event, and obviously it still ended up going pretty well for me.

“I feel like taking a year off of it helped me get away from it. I remember the first time I swam it was at Short Course Worlds, and it ended up going well, and I was like, okay, I think I may start training this event again. That was what made me decide – it got me excited to swim it again because I feel like taking time away really helped me.”

The version of Douglass that arrives in Paris will be far different from the one that left Tokyo. The goals have changed, as Douglass has summarily smashed through all the intermediate ones in her path. She embraced that evolution in Indianapolis, even when it was occasionally uncomfortable and literally projected larger than life. And she’s ready to do the same on the Olympic stage.

“I feel like back in 2021, I just wanted to make the team,” she said. “But now we’re looking on to the next thing that we have to achieve.”

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