Cavaliers Now

Kate Douglass Punches Ticket to Second Olympics by Winning 100m Free

Matt Newton

Kate Douglass competes in the 200-meter breaststroke semifinals Wednesday, June 19, 2024, during the fifth day of competition for the U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Kate Douglass competes in the 200-meter breaststroke semifinals Wednesday, June 19, 2024, during the fifth day of competition for the U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY

Another night, another Cavalier swimmer headed to the Paris Olympics.

Former Virginia swimming star Kate Douglass punched her ticket to her second Olympic Games on Wednesday night and did so in dramatic fashion, coming from behind to beat out a loaded field to win the 100m freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Douglass swam a personal-best 52.56 to finish ahead of Torri Huske (52.93), former UVA teammate Gretchen Walsh (53.13), and Simone Manuel (53.25). Walsh, who qualified for her first Olympics earlier this week by winning the 100 butterfly, qualified for her second event in Paris as her third place finish earned her a spot on the 4x100 free relay team. Half of Team USA's women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay team will be swimmers who trained at Virginia: Douglass, Huske, Walsh, and Manuel.

Douglass also earned the top seed in the finals of the 200m breaststroke with her 2:21.23 swim in the semifinals on Wednesday night. Half of the finals field for the 200m breaststroke will be current or former Cavaliers, as Douglass will be joined in the finals by Alex Walsh (third in 2:22.45), Ella Nelson (4th in 2:23.84), and Anna Keating (sixth in 2:27.60).

On the same night that a former Wahoo in Kate Douglass earned her spot in the 2024 Olympics, a future Cavalier did the same as UVA men's swim & dive commit and Crozet native Thomas Heilman won the men's 200-meter butterfly (1:54.50) at just 17 years old, becoming the youngest American male to qualify for the Olympics since Michael Phelps in 2000.

Also on Wednesday night, Jack Aikins set a UVA school record and recorded the third fastest time (1:55.95) to qualify for the finals in the men's 200-meter backstroke. Additionally, Tess Howley broke the school record in the women's 200-meter butterfly twice and earned the No. 6 seed in the finals.

So far, five current, former, or future UVA swimmers have secured spots on Team USA's roster for the 2024 Olympics:

Paige Madden (UVA '21): 400 free, 4x200 free relay
Gretchen Walsh (UVA '25): 100 fly, 4x100 free relay
Kate Douglass (UVA '23): 100 free, 4x100 free relay
Emma Weber (UVA '26): 100 breast
Thomas Heilman (UVA '29): 200 butterfly

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.