The shortest and fastest event in the Olympic swimming program, the 50-meter freestyle, a long pool using the crawl, the technique universally recognized as the most efficient for gaining speed, is experiencing a revolutionary summer. The ones responsible are two training partners. Kate Douglass, 24, and Gretschen Walsh, 23, members of Todd’s group
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DeSorbo at the University of Virginia. After graduating, they have continued training with the men’s and women’s university team in a heated competitive atmosphere. The results have broken all precedents in the evolution of records over three thrilling months. Kate Douglass wrote the final chapter early Saturday morning when she beat Gretschen Walsh in the final of the Pan Pacific Championship held in Irvine, California. Her time, 23.19 seconds, means much more than a world record. Never in the history of the event since 1975 has there been such a sharp cut in a single day.
The display began in Indianapolis on June 19. That day Kate Douglass broke the record of 23.61s held by Swedish Sarah Sjöström since the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships with a time of 23.59s. It was like breaking a psychological dam. The following week, at the Sette Colli meeting in Rome, Gretchen Walsh cut four hundredths off her teammate’s record. The record stood at 23.55s. They would meet again in California. This Saturday they set the pool on fire. Kate Douglass swam the heat in 23.49s in the morning and the final in 23.19s in the afternoon. Two successive records within hours: a 36 hundredths of a second slash to the Rome mark. In a race that lasts 23 seconds, the difference is enormous.
“I had to look at the time on the scoreboard several times,” she said upon leaving the pool; “I wasn’t really sure I was seeing the time correctly because that time seems insanely fast to me.”
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The record’s evolution points to an absolute anomaly. The 50 freestyle record was broken 32 times since 1975 but never by such a wide margin. The average improvement since 1975 was 0.49% with a standard deviation of 0.40%. Kate Douglass made a cut of 1.53%, more than 2.6%. Something unprecedented in the last 50 years.
The feat was just the appetizer in Kate Douglass’s work on Saturday at the Pan Pacifics. A few minutes after breaking the 50 freestyle record, she swam the 200 breaststroke final, the event that defines her extraordinary versatility and made her Olympic champion in Paris. Weighed down by the effort, she took silver before finishing the afternoon with her participation in the 4×100 medley relay final. She closed the United States relay with the last freestyle leg to claim first place.
“I doubted myself,” she confessed afterward. “I questioned whether I would be able to do all three events. It has been the most intense night of swimming I’ve had.”
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