American Kate Douglass wins 200m breaststroke for first career Olympic gold medal

Followers of Workforce USA now know what followers of the College of Virginia swimming staff have recognized for years: Kate Douglass is a bona-fide star.

The 15-time NCAA champion with the Cavaliers can now add Olympic gold medalist to her résumé after successful the ladies’s 200m breaststroke on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Douglass touched in 2:19.24, decreasing her personal American file and beating Tokyo gold medalist Tatjana Smith (née Schoenmaker) by 0.36 seconds. Tes Schouten of the Netherlands took bronze, whereas five-time Olympic medalist Lilly King completed eighth within the ultimate particular person occasion of her storied Olympic profession.

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“I really feel like this was a very long time coming,” Douglass, 23, instructed NBC’s Melissa Stark after the race. “I really feel like I used to be bodily prepared for this race. Simply what I’ve completed in observe these previous few months main as much as this week, I knew if I executed that race properly, I might win it.”

It’s the primary profession Olympic gold for the Pelham, New York native, and her third medal general. Douglass took bronze within the 200m IM in her Olympic debut in Tokyo, then added silver earlier in Paris as a part of the U.S. ladies’s 4x100m freestyle relay.

Douglass will try and double her gold medal tally Saturday when she swims the ultimate of the 200m IM, her final particular person occasion of the Paris Video games.