Virginia’s Kate Douglass made history on Thursday morning, and then she made some more on Thursday night, becoming the fastest woman ever in the 50-yard freestyle.
She swam a 20.87 in prelims to break the NCAA, US Open and American records set by Abbey Weitzel in 2019. Less than 12 hours later she broke that record once again, touching first in a time of 20.84 to win the national championship and own the two fastest times in history in the event.
Freshman teammate Gretchen Walsh – whose sister Alex broke the NCAA, US Open and American records in the 200 IM just one event earlier – became the first freshman ever under 21 seconds with a time of 20.95 to earn silver. Previously she had set the fastest time ever recorded by a freshman with a time of 21.04, breaking a record previously held by Simone Manuel.
“After ACCs I was pretty excited to swim the 50 here,” Douglass told SwimSwam in the post race press conference, referencing her 21-second swim at the ACC Championships. “I kind of knew I could get under that mark. This morning I definitely wasn’t expecting to go 20.8. I don’t really know what I was expecting but that was pretty awesome to…
