Kate Douglass broke the world record in the 50m freestyle at a Tyr Pro Series meet in Indianapolis, becoming the first American woman to hold the record in the fastest event in swimming in 40 years.
Douglass, the Olympic gold medalist in the 200m breaststroke, clocked 23.59 seconds Friday in an event she didn’t even swim at the 2024 Olympic Trials.
She broke the record of 23.61 set by Swede Sarah Sjöström at the 2023 World Championships.
“I was really just hoping to go a best time, break the American record,” Douglass said on Peacock. “That’s a lot faster than I ever thought I would go tonight, or ever.”
Douglass’ previous personal best was 23.91, which gave her a share of the American record with training partner Gretchen Walsh.
Walsh was second in Friday’s race in 23.78, also going under the previous American record to become the joint-fifth-fastest woman in history globally.
The last American woman to hold the world record in the “splash-and-dash” 50m free was Dara Torres, who held it from 1983-86.
Douglass is the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in one stroke and hold a long-course world record in a different stroke since Tracy Caulkins did so in the individual medleys and the 100m butterfly (shared the world record) more than 40 years ago.
Sjöström, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist in the 50m free, first set the world record in 2017 and held it for nearly nine years.
Douglass is also the second-fastest swimmer in history in the 200m breast with a best time of 2:18.50, trailing only Yevgeniya Chikunova of Russia’s world record of 2:17.55.
Douglass is also the American record holder in the 100m free, 200m breast and 200m individual medley in short-course swimming (25-meter pools), a testament to her unique versatility.
