Kate Douglass Set to Continue Medal Run With Eye Toward Future
Her immensely successful second Olympic appearance included four medals, among them gold in the 200 breaststroke. Following Paris, Kate Douglass hedged on her future in the sport. She was always going to swim for at least one more year, but that was as far as she would consider. She previously described her chances of swimming through the 2028 Los Angeles Games as 50/50, and with a masters in statistics from the University of Virginia, Douglass would have no shortage of career options if she decided to be done with the sport.
But her actions and words last week at U.S. Nationals hinted that Douglass has plans to push her career three more years and aim for the home-country Olympic showcase athletes crave. The sign came last Friday evening when the start list for the women’s 200 IM, to be held on the final day of competition, did not include Douglass’ name. She had scratched out of the event in which she has won two Olympic medals and the last two world titles in both long course and short course.
This wasn’t the first time Douglass passed on the medley, an event she has openly admitted to not enjoying. She did the same thing the year after the Tokyo Olympics, although that followed only one Olympic bronze and none of the world titles. Back then, she was playing the long game, skipping the event for one summer only to return with a vengeance the following season, imposing her will across all three courses. The thought process was similar this time.
“I think this whole year, I wanted to take a step back from 200 IM training,” Douglass said. “I don’t love it. I did this after Tokyo where I kind of took the year off of it, and then I was excited to swim it again. That’s kind of the plan, taking this year off and seeing if I can get back to it next year.”
Kate Douglass — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
No reason for Douglass to take a reprieve from one of her premier events and target next year if the upcoming Singapore meet was to be her final global-level competition. Rather, Douglass was following a similar blueprint to her good friend and American teammate Regan Smith. The two swimmers traveled throughout Asia last fall, using the World Cup meets as a soft-launch for their post-Olympic returns but focusing on the experience more than high-pressure racing. Douglass excelled at the Short Course World Championships in December and then took another four-week break. “I felt like I spent all spring trying to get back into shape,” she said.
Like Smith, Douglass took a path long favored by veterans, gradually work back to all-in training with the goal of extending their careers, and Douglass has similar plans for the 2025-26 season, still a long way out from the Olympic target.
“This year was necessary to kind of take a step back from everything and not be all-in on training this entire year to be able to make it a few more years,” Douglass said, “It’s kind of going to be a gradual getting back into that all-in mindset for 2028. I think this was a good first year post-Olympics to take a step back, take things more chill and just enjoy the sport a little bit, and I’ll probably try to keep doing that the next few years.”
Considering that, she was far from disappointed with her swims at Nationals, even if she was considerably short of her best times in the 100 freestyle and 200 breaststroke. She still heads to Worlds as a co-favorite for 200 breast gold alongside Russia’s Evgeniia Chikunova while setting up to play a central role on the U.S. women’s 400 free relay. Moreover, she will race two new events for the first time at the international level after taking down Lilly King to win the 100 breaststroke and finishing behind Virginia teammate Gretchen Walsh in the 50 butterfly.
“Coming into this meet, I didn’t have the best expectations for myself,” Douglass said. “I just wanted to do my best with the training that I had under my belt, and I think I did do a good job with that. I feel like I just have to look back on this year and know that it wasn’t going to be perfect. I think the results are pretty good considering all that.”
Douglass currently sits second in the world in the 200 breast, third in the 50 fly and fourth in the 100 breast, with the latter event carrying a bit extra meaning. The 23-year-old is in position to rejoin the finals squad of the U.S. women’s 400 medley relay as the breaststroker, filling out a team with Smith, Walsh and Torri Huske that will be heavily favored for gold. Additionally, she gets to swim one last time alongside Lilly King, her partner in the 200 breast the last three summers, with King swimming in her final meet in Singapore.
Even without her usual level of dedication, Douglass has qualified for her target meet for the fifth consecutive year, and she remains a key cog for a veteran-heavy team poised to build on the 15 individual medals won in Paris.
“I’m really confident in this women’s team,” Douglass said. “This week, there’s been so many great swims. So many girls who I’ve been on relays with, who I’ve won medals with are heading back to Singapore with me. I’m really excited, and there’s also been some great up-and-comers and some surprises this week. I think that gets us all excited for the future.”
