Kate Douglass’ 2:14.16 World short-course record over 200m breaststroke at the second leg of the 2024 World Cup today let the number of shiny suit global marks still standing at 11, eight of them in the long-course pool. 

Douglass, the Olympic champion, takes a doppelgänger, or "digital twin" to the blocks with her courtesy of the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) she wears on her hands in training to help build a profile of her swimming efficiency and work on getting it as close to "perfect" as possible in pursuit of her goals:

Douglass & Her Doppelgänger Dance With Data To Party In The Paris Olympic Pool

Thanks to Newton’s calculus, “Mathematics, physics and technology have revolutionised swimming. The idea is that biomechanical and hydrodynamic minutiae are variables in a complex physical and mathematical problem. By optimizing these “variables,” swimmers can reach near perfection.”

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Today in Incheon, Douglass, who clocked 2:15 at the first round of the Cup in Shanghai last week, took down the World record that had stood to fellow American and Olympic 200m champion Rebecca Soni since the last season of shiny suits in 2009.

The splits compared: 

• 30.68; 1:04.75; 1:39.20; 2:14.16 (34.96) Kate Douglass, Incheon, KOR, 2024
• 31.05; 1:05.18; 1:40.00; 2:14.57 (34.57) Rebecca Soni, Manchester, UK, 2009

It was the first world record of Douglass' career.