Cavaliers Now

Virginia's Kate Douglass Wins First Olympic Gold Medal in 200m Breaststroke

Matt Newton

Virginia swimming legend Kate Douglass won her first-ever Olympic gold medal, holding off defending Olympic Champion Tatjana Smith of South Africa to win the 200-meter breaststroke.
Virginia swimming legend Kate Douglass won her first-ever Olympic gold medal, holding off defending Olympic Champion Tatjana Smith of South Africa to win the 200-meter breaststroke. / Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

Olympic gold for Kate Douglass!

Former Virginia swimmer Kate Douglass, one of the greatest to ever swim at the collegiate level, earned her first-ever Olympic gold medal on Thursday in Paris, holding off defending Olympic Champion Tatjana Smith of South Africa in a thrilling final in the 200-meter breaststroke. Douglass broke her own American record and finished in 2:19.24, just ahead of Smith, who finished in 2:19.60 to take silver.

A two-time Olympian, Douglass won bronze in the 200m individual medley at the 2020 Olympic Games, while UVA teammate Alex Walsh won silver. Since then, Douglass has compiled an impressive record of medals at both short-course and long-course World Championships, including 11 gold medals. She was also a 15-time NCAA champion and 28-time All-American in her career at Virginia.

But an Olympic gold medal remained the ultimate goal as Douglass qualified for her second Olympics.

Douglass added a silver medal on the first night of the Olympic swimming competition, swimming the leadoff leg of Team USA's 4x100 freestyle relay team, which also featured another Wahoo, Gretchen Walsh.

Now, Douglass is officially an Olympic gold medalist and she did so in record-breaking fashion. Douglass became the first UVA swimmer to ever win a gold medal.

Later on Thursday, former Virginia swimmer Paige Madden, who helped lead the Cavaliers to their first-ever NCAA National Champion in 2021, won her second Olympic medal. Madden swam the second leg of Team USA's 4x200 relay team that finished second to Australia to win silver. That medal gave Katie Ledecky her 13th Olympic medal, the most ever won by an American woman.

Madden also won silver in the same event as part of Team USA's 4x200 relay team at the Tokyo Olympics.

That brings Virginia's medal total to five for the 2024 Paris Olympics, as Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh have both won two medals this week in addition to Madden's relay medal.

Douglass will have another chance to earn a medal in the 200-meter individual medley, with the prelims for that event set to begin on Friday.

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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.