A 400 Medley Relay Of Kate Douglass Clones Would Be Faster Than Almost Every NCAA Team

While doing the day 5 ACC finals live recap last night, I stumbled upon a stat from SwimSwam commenter “organic garlic crackers”, who said that if Kate Douglass decided to clone herself three times and make a 400 medley relay, her best times in each stroke would add up to a 400 medley relay time that’s faster than every other team except for Virginia. After seeing this stat, I decided to look more into the numbers behind it to figure out just how dominant and versatile Douglass is in the 100-yard stroke races.

Douglass’s 50.47 100 back, 58.14 100 breast, 48.84 100 fly, and 45.86 100 free add up to a time of 3:23.31, which is indeed faster than the school records for every single women’s NCAA team with the exception of Virginia (3:21.80) and NC State (3:23.29). If you swap her flat start 100 fly time with her fastest fly split of 48.25, you get a 400 medley relay time of 3:22.72—beating out NC State. So in other words, if this hypothetical squad of Kate Douglass clones was to make a relay, the only school they wouldn’t be able to beat would be their own.

Of course, this doesn’t even account for the fact that Douglass has never swum the 100 back or 100 breast rested at a championship meet, nevertheless on a relay. If she decided to seriously make a run at either event, who knows much much faster her own medley relay would be?

All-Time Hypothetical Top Performers, Women’s 400 Medley Relay:

1. Virginia — 3:21.80 (2023)
2. Kate Douglass Clones — 3:22.72
3. NC State — 3:23.29 (2022)
4. Stanford — 3:25.05 (2018)
5. Cal — 3:25.24 (2019)
6. Texas — 3:25.29 (2022)

Splits Comparison:

Talk about dominance, right?

Researching Douglass led me to my next question—how would this Kate Douglass medley relay compare to the medley relays of other female swimmers if they had cloned? Since the USA Swimming times database is being really slow, I couldn’t compile data on which exact swimmers have the fastest combination of the four 100-yard strokes. However, I did add up the best times of a few swimmers that I knew at the top of my head to be super versatile, and none of them were faster than Douglass.

The swimmer capable of coming closest to Douglass is of course her teammate Alex Walsh, whose best times in the 100 stroke races (relay splits included) add up to a 3:24.27. That time is over a second slower than the medley relay of Kate Douglass clones, but it’s still faster than every other team except for UVA and NC State. Gretchen Walsh and Maggie MacNeil have some of the fastest swims of all-time in the 100-yard back, fly, and free races, but both swimmers are hindered by their breaststroke times. G. Walsh’s best 100-yard times add up to a 3:25.75, while MacNeil’s times add up to a 3:28.05 largely due to her 1:04.27 100 breast.

Take a look at the added-up best times in the 100-yard races for some of the most versatile female NCAA swimmers, and how they compare to Douglass’s:

Splits Comparison:

Now, how does Douglass’s versatility compare to that of men’s swimmers? The first example that comes to mind is Caeleb Dressel, who was an elite 100-yard flyer, freestyler, and breaststroker. His best times in the 100-yard events (47.83 100 back, 50.03 100 breast, 42.80 100 fly, 39.90 100 free) add up to a 3:00.56 400 medley relay time, which probably would contend for an NCAA title in most years, but is still slower than the team records of Texas, Florida, Indiana, and Cal. But as noted before, it’s important to consider that Dressel never took the 100 back seriously, nor did he really swim fly on relays. In addition, if four-stroke talent Leon Marchand decided to pursue the 100-yard races more, he could probably be as dominant as Douglass with his own 400 medley relay.

All-Time Hypothetical Top Performers, Men’s 400 Medley Relay:

1. Texas — 2:59.22 (2017)
2. Florida — 2:59.48 (2023)
3. Indiana — 2:59.70 (2019)
4. Cal — 3:00.36 (2022)
5. Caeleb Dressel Clones — 3:00.56 

So, what does this data all mean? Well, it basically just further confirms what we all knew before—that Kate Douglass is very good at swimming, and is also one of the most versatile athletes in the history of the sport.