Class of ’19 Alumna Kate Douglass Wins Olympic Bronze in 200 Individual Medley Finals

BREAKING NEWS

Kate Douglass, Class of ’19, placed 3rd in 200 Individual Medley finals earning a Bronze medal with a time of 2:09:04. In a nail-biter of a final, Douglass finished just .52 of a second behind Yui Ohashi of Japan, who took the Gold, and .39 of a second behind Alex Walsh of the USA, who took the Silver.

Douglass said, “We all knew it was going to come down to the last 50 [meters] in the race.”

In the previous day’s semifinal heats, Douglass placed 1st among all sixteen semifinalists in the 200 Individual Medley semifinals with a winning time of 2:09:21.

“We all feed off each other’s successes,” Douglass said, “and I think it’s just showing that there’s a great future for USA Swimming out there.”

Kate, a sophomore at the University of Virginia, was an Olympic trials qualifier at the age of 14 and National Age Group record holder in girls 13-14 50 free, where she earned a silver medal in the 4×100 freestyle at junior nationals.

While a junior at Pelham, Kate represented the US at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires where she placed 6th in the women’s 200 Long Course Meters (LCM), Individual Medley, and the 50 LCM freestyle.

At the time, Douglas told Pel Mel reporter Dylan Nordstrom that “representing the United States is always such an incredible experience. Everybody would start to stare at us when they saw our Team USA gear, which just gave us such a cool feeling of pride to represent the U.S.”