Kate Douglass Extends Unique WR Collection: 13th Career Global Topper A 49.64 100 Free
American sprinter now has 13 World records to her name, and the University of Virginia sorority has 20 global marks in its pantheon...
Kate Douglass is on a World-record roll like no other in swimming history, a thunderous 49.64 victory in the 100m freestyle granting her a 13th career global mark in the pool and U.S. Trials in Westmont, Illinois, a sixth global short-course standard in three days:
Day 2:
Craig Lord
Day 3:
Craig Lord
Douglass's latest high bar swells the tally of world records set by the sprint sorority at the University of Virginia team guided by Todd de Sorbo, Tyler Fenwick and coaching team, to more than 20, 19 of them concurrent and standing (pending ratification), in the past few years.
Out in 23.52 (a pace only 23 other women have ever achieved in the solo 50m race), home in 26.12 and inside the 49.93 (off a 23.93 split) she clocked last year to become the first women to race inside 50sec, Douglass gave the trials a curtain-closer fit to send the USA team selected for December's World s/c titles off to Beijing with a speedy skip in its step.
Just one rival got within a second of her, and then only just: Gretchen Walsh, fellow member of Virginia's sorority of world-record setters, clocked 50.61, with Liberty Clark taking third in 50.94, and Rylee Erisman and a 51.22 completing the top four aiming for a golden relay outcome in Beijing.
Women's 100m freestyle
🇺🇸Kate Douglass
— 競泳NEWS (@swimcoverage) November 1, 2026
SCM 100Fr 49.64 WR https://t.co/jZTVmxJIyZ pic.twitter.com/j5yjralyx7
That swim of Douglass' is part of a unique stamp in swimming's philately of standards. Here's the spectrum of events in which the 24-year-old has set at least one world record, short/long or both courses (the full list below):
