2023 marked another successful year for American swimming sensation Kate Douglass. The 2020 Olympic Medalist swept 6 medals at the 2023 World Championships including two Golds while NCAA Championships saw her winning 7 gold medals. While she also won the Honda Sports Award for best college swimmer second straight time, it was the moment she broke the 12-year-old American record that will be forever in her memory.
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Before breaking the record at Knoxville Pro Series, Douglass won three medals at the U. S Open Meet 2023. However, what caused the 2-second faster finish, the 22-year-old explains.
Kate Douglass explains record-breaking swim at Knoxville Pro Series
In the latest interview with USA Swimming, Kate Douglass spoke about her 2023 season, particularly about the record-breaking run at Knoxville Pro Series. When asked to explain her empathetic run, she replied, “I definitely had like a solid few months of training in the fall and we did a lot of time trails at UVA and I kind of just raced in practice and I was going some pretty fast times and I was excited for the US Open”. However, despite being fully geared up, the Olympic Medalist believes a lot of traveling before the U. S Open had her training ‘all over the place’.
However, after the U. S Open, she decided to ‘stay in one place for a while, not miss too much practice‘. Leading up to January’s TYR Pro Series, the 22-year-old had ‘a few weeks of consistent training’ that prepared her to break Rebecca Soni’s record of 2:19:59 in the 200m category with a timing of 2:19:30. With this, she became the 4th fastest women swimmer of all time on the back of 6-medal campaign at 2023 World Championships.
Douglass’ 2023 World’s campaign
Kate Douglass participated in 7 events at the 2023 World Championships and won a medal in six of them. She swam in the final of women’s 4x100m freestyle relay to win the silver medal and exactly a day after, she went on to win gold in the individual 200m medley. The 2020 Tokyo Bronze medalist then finished third in the mixed 4x100m relay.
READ MORE: Kate Douglass Etches Name On Another Record At US Open Swimming Championship
Douglas next swam in the 100m freestyle but finished off the podium at 4. However, she soon made a comeback in the 200m breaststroke to win the silver medal and later took home another silver in the mixed 4×100 m freestyle. Douglas capped off the World campaign with a gold medal in the women’s 4×100 medley relay and was later named Female Athlete of the Year.
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