Last summer, Kate Douglass won the Olympic 200m breaststroke title in the absence of world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova.
On Friday, she crushed Chikunova (who was recovering from illness) for the world title in the 200m breast, consolidating her dominance in the event and her standing among the world’s most versatile swimmers.
Douglass prevailed in 2 minutes, 18.50 seconds in Singapore, beating Chikunova by 1.46 seconds.
It’s the second-fastest time in history behind Chikunova’s world record of 2:17.55 from 2023, breaking Douglass’ own American record.
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“I gave it my all in that race,” Douglass, who about 15 minutes later was seventh in a 50m butterfly semifinal, said on Peacock. “I felt like I was going to throw up walking out to the 50m fly.”
The 200m breast final was the first first head-to-head between Douglass and Chikunova in the event on this level. Chikunova, a neutral athlete from Russia, was absent in past years due to restrictions on Russian athletes since the invasion of Ukraine.
Chikunova said she became ill with a virus earlier in the week, according to Russian media.
“We tried to recover on a short deadline,” she said, according to World Aquatics. “Some of the things we tried worked, some things didn’t. The result you see today is what we have as the outcome.
“The worst things you can imagine about it, it all happened to me. The doctor was trying to calm me down yesterday before the preliminaries because I didn’t know what to do.”
At previous worlds in the 200m breast, Douglass earned bronze (2022) and silver (2023, 2024). She’s also a two-time world champion in the 200m individual medley and a world silver medalist in the 50m free and 100m breast.
Including relays, Douglass has 17 long-course world championships medals — all since 2022 — breaking her tie with Missy Franklin for fourth in U.S. women’s history behind Katie Ledecky (29), Natalie Coughlin (20) and Simone Manuel (18).
“Being a professional swimmer was never something I thought would be my career, especially going into college,” Douglass, a 15-time NCAA champion at Virginia from 2020-23, said in early spring. “I kind of thought it would be four years of college swimming, and I would retire just like a normal college athlete.”
Also Friday, Dutchwoman Marrit Steenbergen repeated as world champion in the 100m free in 52.55, beating Australian Mollie O’Callaghan by 12 hundredths.
Torri Huske, among the U.S. swimmers affected to varying degrees by acute gastroenteritis over the last week, earned bronze.
World record holder Qin Haiyang of China claimed a third consecutive world title in the 200m breast after tying for 10th at the Paris Olympics and making this final in the last qualifying spot.
American A.J. Pouch led at the 150-meter mark and ended up fifth.
Hungary’s Hubert Kos won his second world title in the 200m backstroke, adding to his Olympic gold in the event.
He was under American Aaron Peirsol’s world record pace at 150 and touched in 1:53.19, the world’s best time in 10 years.
Great Britain won the men’s 4x200m free relay with one swimmer each from England (James Guy), Scotland (Duncan Scott), Wales (Matt Richards) and Northern Ireland (Jack McMillan).
The U.S. placed fourth, missing the medals in the event for the first time since 1998. Luke Hobson gave the Americans the lead after three of four legs with the fastest split of the 32-swimmer field.
Worlds continue through Sunday with preliminary heats at 10 p.m. ET and finals at 7 a.m., live on Peacock.
Saturday’s finals feature the most anticipated race of the meet — the women’s 800m free with Katie Ledecky eyeing a record-breaking seventh world title in one event. She’ll face Summer McIntosh, who is two golds away from becoming the second swimmer to win five individual events at one worlds after Michael Phelps.
