As America’s New Top 100 Freestyler, Kate Douglass Faces Her Biggest Test Yet At Worlds

More often than not, a nation’s top 100 freestyler is the one doing the most heavy lifting for their team, especially if they are amongst the best in the world in the event. Not only are they the star of the “blue ribbon race” in swimming, but they also have to step up on several of their country’s relays, oftentimes being the difference between a gold and silver or a bronze and fourth place. And we love them for it—the role they play for their country is the reason why swimmers like Caeleb Dressel, Simone Manuel, Emma McKeon, and Kyle Chalmers (amongst many others) were viewed in such high regard at their peak.

From 2016 to 2019, the top 100 freestyler for the American women was Simone Manuel. Manuel helped uplift Team USA both individually and on relays when she was at her best, becoming the fastest female sprinter in American history and an individual Olympic and World Champion during her reign. Because she was the best 100 freestyler in the World then, she was able to mask America’s lack of sprint freestyle depth compared to the likes of Canada and Australia.

When Manuel’s performance declined due to overtraining syndrome in 2021, Abbey Weitzeil became America’s new top 100 freestyler at the Tokyo Olympics. Then, when Weitzeil missed the Worlds team in 2022, it was Torri Huske who stepped up (alongside Claire Curzan, who wasn’t the nation’s top 100 freestyler but swam on the same number of relays as Huske). And while Weitzeil and Huske are both phenomenal sprinters that helped Team USA to several medals, both of them were barely within a second of Manuel’s best results. Without Manuel at her best, American women’s sprinting felt like a shadow of its former self.

Headed into the 2023 World Championships, the swimmer entrusted to become that “Captain America” for the U.S. women will be none other than Kate Douglass.

By virtue of her 52.57 from the 2023 U.S. National Championships, Douglass has become America’s best 100 freestyler by a significant margin. In fact, she’s the second-fastest American female in history behind Manuel. But Douglass is unlike any other sprint star that we’ve ever seen.

And boy, are the stakes high.

Douglass doesn’t have the event lineup of the typical sprinter, as in addition to the 100 free, she’s also racing the 200 IM and 200 breast as a medal contender individually at Worlds. Because of this, she’ll have to face situations that most other sprinters don’t have to deal with, such as a 200 IM semi-final before the women’s 4×100 free relay and a 100 free/200 breast double. This is the price she has to pay for her own versatility—not only is there pressure for her to perform as America’s best sprinter, but she’ll have to handle tricky situations that the people who came before her didn’t have to deal with.

Another thing to consider is the sudden nature of Douglass’ rise. Her performance at Nationals was unexpected—she came into the meet with a best time of 53.99, and suddenly dropped nearly 1.5 seconds. In fact, she even said in her 100 free post-race interview that she didn’t think she was capable of going sub-53. Prior to Worlds, her only long course relay final experience was swimming the slowest leg of a womens’ 4×100 free relay at last year’s Worlds. Now, she has just three weeks to prepare to take on the biggest role that any American woman will have at the highest-profile international competition of the year.

Other swimmers have been in situations similar to Douglass’ before, like when then-18-year-old Mollie O’Callaghan had to become Australia’s top sprinter when Emma McKeon and the Campbell sisters opted out of 2022 Worlds. However, O’Callaghan was expected to be their heir months before Worlds happened and showed flashes of potential on Tokyo prelims relays, whereas Douglass’ success came straight out of left field.

If Douglass isn’t at her best at Worlds (which is possible, given how fast she went at Nationals and the short turnaround between that meet and Worlds), there will be plenty of American women with less unconventional event lineups that will be ready to replace her. Weitzeil in particular is just coming off of a 24.00 50 free, indicating that she could have something much faster than a 52.92 100 free in store for Fukuoka. But even with good backup options, that 52.5 100 free from Douglass shows a potential that would seem like a waste if it wasn’t fulfilled.

That being said, it’s not like Douglass is a total rookie to the “team star status”—she had to be one of the relay heavyweights for the University of Virginia during her college years, and was America’s best relay performer at 2022 Short Course Worlds. But long course is a different animal, and Worlds (and eventually the Olympics) is where the lights shine the brightest.

At just 21 years of age with only three months of full-time long course training, the sky is the limit for a swimmer like Douglass. If she’s able to pass her biggest test yet in Fukuoka and bear the responsibility given to her, the future will be looking very bright come time for Paris.