By Gold Medal Mel Stewart on SwimSwam
In this GMM takeover of the SwimSwam podcast we have Olympic Champion, World Champion, and 6-time 2026 Pan Pacific Championship medalist Kate Douglass.
Douglass built her career on versatility, but the 2026 season complicates—in the best way possible—an already crowded schedule of events.
At the Fort Lauderdale Open in May, Douglass won the 50 free in 24.21. Six weeks later at the Indianapolis Pro Swim, she exploded to a 23.59 world record. Nine days after that, Virginia teammate Gretchen Walsh lowered the record to 23.55.
Douglass answered at the Pan Pacific Championships, ripping a 23.19 world record in the 50 free, lowering the mark by more than three tenths and suddenly putting the once-unthinkable 22-second barrier into the conversation. And that one swim is the most impressive of an entire generation, according to SwimmingStats.
Douglass also led off the American 4×100 free relay in 51.69, breaking the American record and coming within .01 of the individual world record.
Those performances raise a fascinating question heading toward LA 2028: Has one of swimming’s greatest all-around talents discovered that sprint freestyle may ultimately be her best event?
Douglass answers that question at the top of the podcast. From there, we dig into her progression from Fort Lauderdale to Indianapolis and ultimately Pan Pacs, mining what changed in her training and racing and whether she saw these breakthroughs coming.
Douglass also talks about the back-and-forth world-record battle with Gretchen Walsh, what it is like training alongside one of her biggest competitors, and how the two continue to push the limits of women’s sprinting.
Douglass remains the reigning Olympic champion in the 200 breast and won the 2025 World Championship title in an American record 2:18.50. She’s also an Olympic silver medalist and two-time world champion in the 200 IM.
So how does she train to become potentially the first woman under 23 seconds in the 50 free while remaining one of the fastest 200 breaststrokers in history?
We talk event selection, the balance between versatility and specialization, what her Pan Pac performances taught her, and how her program could evolve over the next two years on the road to LA 2028.
Stay tuned. We also captured a Todd DeSorbo podcast to dig deeper into all of the above and for insight into Gretchen Walsh‘s performance this season.
Follow Kate Douglass on Instagram here.
Follow Gold Medal Mel on Instagram here.
Many thanks to Swimoutlet.com for their 15 year partnership and support of this swimming news and media.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
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