On Saturday morning, Kate Douglass casually set a world record in her 50-meter freestyle heat. Saturday night, she swam the race again — and absolutely demolished her own record.
Douglass sprinted to a gold medal in the event with a mind-boggling time of 23.19 seconds, pulling away to leave a sizable gap between her and the competition. The time shaved a full three-tenths of a second off her time from that morning’s heat, and left the commentators completely speechless.
Douglass had been trading the record with fellow USA teammate Gretchen Walsh throughout the summer. After Douglass set a record of 23.59 in Indianapolis on June 19, Walsh beat the record just eight days later, recording a time of 23:55.
On Saturday, Douglass took that stat back with a 23:49 — before smashing it hours later.
Walsh came in second on Saturday, picking up the silver with a time of 23:74. Australia’s Meg Harris came in third with a time of 23.89.
After setting a world record in the 500 free, Douglass didn’t have much time to enjoy the win. When Douglass was accepting her gold medal, she was still wearing her swim cap — because she immediately had to turn around and race again in the 200-meter breaststroke. She casually swam to a silver medal.
This story will be updated.