Multi-Event Standout Kate Douglass Puts Exclamation Point on 200 Breaststroke Dominance
Most multi-event swimmers follow familiar patterns of versatility: butterfly and backstroke, mid-distance freestyle plus the 400 IM, sprint events across multiple strokes. Kate Douglass completely breaks that mold as a sprint freestyler and butterfly who is among the best in the world in the 200 IM — not to mention the Olympic gold medalist in the 200 breaststroke.
Swimmers such as Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh were able to race four individual events each at the Paris Olympics because the schedules worked out in their favor, although Marchand certainly benefitted from the 200 fly and 200 breast finals being spread out on the fifth night of finals at the Games. Douglass, on the other hand, was unable to swim the 50 free because its semifinals took place immediately before the 200 IM final. Previously, Douglass had become the first swimmer to attempt the 100 free-200 breast double at the World Championships.
Now, as Douglass competes on the short course meters World Cup circuit in Asia, she has been able to show her speed across some events she rarely swims. Her multi-stroke talents and sprint speed make the 100 IM a perfect fit for her, and she responded with an American record last week in Shanghai, although it lasted only hours before training partner Gretchen Walsh crushed it as well as the world record.
Douglass is also two-for-two in 50 butterfly wins on the circuit. That event is perhaps her seventh best, but it fits into her World Cup lineup since none of her top-six falls on day two of the meet schedule.
Kate Douglass celebrates winning Olympic gold in the 200 breaststroke — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
And of course, she has excelled in the 200 breast, the event in which she won individual Olympic gold in Paris. She has claimed World Cup wins in both Shanghai and Incheon, and at the second meet, she took down the 15-year-old world record set by fellow American Rebecca Soni during the height of the polyurethane suit era.
Soni’s record had survived numerous scares within the last decade, with Lilly King, Yuliya Efimova and Evgeniia Chikunova all coming close. This time, Douglass went out fast enough to pull ahead of record pace but still have enough closing speed to get the job done down the stretch with a time of 2:14.16.
For many big-name swimmers coming off high-pressure leadups to the Paris Games, this World Cup series is serving as a relaxed setting for a return to competition and a build-up toward the Short Course World Championships in Budapest in December. In two previous appearances at Short Course Worlds, Douglass has snagged 12 medals, including a pair of individual golds in 2022, and this time, she will swim the 50 and 100 free, 200 breast and 200 IM, with the 100 IM a likely addition to her program, and Douglass could take part in up to five relays.
Even if she lags behind what could be a double-digit medal haul for Walsh, Douglass will still surely come home with additional hardware to cap off what has been a prolific year, both in terms of swimming success and frequent flyer milers accumulated.
Douglass was one of few big-name American women to race at February’s long course World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and she won five medals, including 200 IM gold plus silvers in the 50 free and 200 breast. She secured wins in all three of her events at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and the Paris medal haul for Douglass included the individual gold in the 200 breast plus silver in the 200 IM and a gold and silver on relays. Finishing the year with 15 or more medals at global-level championships would be an all-time great swimming accomplishment, even if this year’s competition slate has been busier than any year before.
Perhaps just as significantly, Douglass has finally established herself as the clear-cut best swimmer in the world in an event. For her first three years competing internationally, she has been in the mix in every major final in which she has competed, never finishing lower than fourth but never dominating either. Her world-title wins in the 200 IM in 2023 and early 2024 were great, but McIntosh and Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, the swimmers who joined Douglass on the Olympic podium in Paris, were absent from the field on both occasions.
Instead, it was her gold medal in the 200 breast in Paris that made her a clear-cut No. 1 for the first time, providing that individual Olympic honor that so many swimmers would trade anything, even a stack of international medals from lower-level meets, to achieve. Douglass lowered her American record that evening to 2:19.24, reinforcing her status as the third-fastest swimmer ever in the event, and she victory was also a symbolic changing-of-the-guard as she took the title from Tokyo gold medalist Tatjana (Schoenmaker) Smith before the South African announced her retirement.
Of course, we cannot forget about Chikunova, who holds the world record in the event at 2:17.55, almost one-and-a-half seconds quicker than anyone in history. But Russian swimmers remain largely exiled from international competition because of the country’s war against Ukraine, and there are no ongoing discussions for their return. So even though Chikunova actually swam a time of 2:18.98 three days before the Olympic final, her absence from major competitions makes her an afterthought in the global landscape of the event, at least until she is able to return to race against Douglass and co.
Instead, Douglass has the gold medal, and now she has the short course world record as well, needing only a short course world title in December to cap off her year of dominance in the 200 breast. She remains excellent across the board, capable of strong swims in 50, 100 and 200-meter races in any stroke but backstroke, but the 200 breast is her main event, the one she owns, the one that has made her Olympic champion and a world-record holder.