KATE DOUGLASS

Kate Douglass created lifelong memories in and out of the pool at the 2022 World Short-Course Championships in Melbourne.

The USA swimmer won five golds and two silvers to conclude a fine year that began with treble bronze at the long-course World Championships in Budapest.

After she claimed her final title of the meet with the USA women’s 4x100 medley relay in a world record of 3:44.35, Kate gave her medal to an age-group swimmer from North-West Aquatic Club who was volunteering at the meet.

“Honestly these medals are just going to sit in a box in my room, so I figured one of the volunteers would be much more excited about it than me,” Kate told SwimSwam.

Kate won her first senior international medal at the Tokyo Olympics with bronze in the 200m individual medley before she made five podium visits at the Abu Dhabi short-course worlds in December 2021.

She was also enjoying a fine college career at the University of Virginia where early on in her junior year, she told Cavaliers head coach Todd DeSorbo she wanted to break American records in the 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke.

No swimmer had ever achieved records in that pairing of events but Kate pulled it off at the NCAA Championships in March 2022 while also setting a 100-yard butterfly standard.

The legacy she will leave behind as one of the college swimming greats is fundamental to Kate, who told Swimming World: “I just want to leave a big impact with the younger kids on the team, especially the first-years. I want them to look up to me as a role model.”