Kate Douglass breaks 50m freestyle world record twice at Pan Pacific Championships
Kate Douglass broke the women’s 50 metre freestyle world record twice on August 16, 2026, at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, first in the heats and then again in the final where she won in 23.19 seconds. The American had set the mark earlier that day with a 23.49 in the preliminaries.
Douglass’s morning swim took the record from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who had held the mark at 23.55 after a swim in Rome in June. The 24-year-old has lowered the world record in the 50 free on three occasions: she first set it at 23.59 on June 19 at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis, Walsh improved it nine days later, and Douglass reclaimed and improved it twice at the Pan Pacs. Douglass is a five-time Olympic medallist and took silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships; she did not compete in that event at the 2024 Paris Games.
In the Pan Pacs final Douglass touched first in 23.19, with Walsh second in 23.74 and Australia’s reigning world champion Meg Harris third in 23.89. Walsh’s 23.55 from June had been the standing world record until Douglass’s 23.49 in the heats. The final confirmed Douglass’s new benchmark for the sprint event.
Twenty-five minutes after the 50 free final Douglass raced the 200 breaststroke and finished second, chasing Canada’s Alexanne Lepage. Lepage led throughout and won in 2:21.73, while Douglass closed strongly to touch in 2:22.57.
The Pan Pacific meet produced at least one other individual world-record performance: Australia’s Jamie Jack won the men’s 50 free in a championship record of 21.35, with American Jack Alexy taking silver in 21.42. That mark in the men’s sprint was the other headline time among the short events.
China’s Yu Yiting set a championship record in the women’s 200 individual medley, winning in 2:07.45 after a race that saw her under world-record pace on the opening butterfly leg. American Regan Smith moved into the lead on the backstroke, Yu regained the front on the breaststroke and held off Canada’s Summer McIntosh in the closing metres; McIntosh took silver in 2:07.47 and American Alex Walsh earned bronze in 2:07.66, with Smith fourth.
McIntosh added a silver in the 200 freestyle and a bronze in the 4x200 freestyle relay at the meet, but she failed to qualify for the 400 free championship final and won the ‘B’ final. “It wasn’t a horrible swim, but getting touched out is something that is never a good thing to feel,” she said. “Overall, the meet didn’t go the way I wanted it to, so there’ll definitely be a lot of reflection.”
In the men’s 200 individual medley Tomoyuki Matushita of Japan won in 1:56.02 ahead of American Carson Foster. The Pan Pacific Championships, which feature swimmers from the US, Australia, Canada, Japan and China among others, accounted for two individual world records during the meet.