Kate Douglass has always been good at math. Reading and writing hardly ever piqued her interest.

“I stick with the numbers,” the computer science major at the University of Virginia said in a press conference before the 2023 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships.

“I started on a computer science track at UVA because I thought coding was pretty cool and then I found I liked stat and data science which is a mix of computer science and math. I really enjoyed the stat classes and programs at UVA and they just make sense to me which is why I like it.”

By the numbers, Douglass has eight NCAA titles, seven NCAA records, and two NCAA team titles in her college career. With potentially her final NCAA Championships coming up this week in Knoxville, Tennessee, Douglass has already put together one of the most successful careers for a swimmer in the NCAA.

This year alone, she leads the NCAA in four different individual events, more than the allotted three for the championships. She has set the fastest time in history in the 100m butterfly and 200m breaststroke, and is seven hundredths away from the national record in the 200 IM.

“I definitely have been surprised by the amount of best times I have done prior to NCAAs this year for sure,” Douglass said. “No matter what happens (at NCAAs), I’ve already had a great season so I have got to be happy with it, and it takes the pressure off a little bit. It is definitely getting me ready to have a really good NCAA meet.”

Douglass will be racing the 200m IM, 100m butterfly, and 200m breaststroke in what could be her final NCAA meet if she decides not to take a fifth year of eligibility that the entirety of those competing during the 2020-21 season were granted. There, she will line up against some of the fastest ever in short course yards, including Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil and reigning World champion Torri Huske in the 100m butterfly, and her own Virginia teammate in Alex Walsh in the 200m IM.

“I try not to think about who I am racing but I know those are going to be good races,” Douglass said of the matchups. “I think it will be exciting for Alex and I to go head to head in the 200 IM because we always push each other when we race against each other so I think it will be good no matter who touches first. I am definitely excited for the 100m fly because I know that’s a stacked field. There are so many people who have a chance of winning that so that is going to be a great race to swim.”

Walsh, who is a junior at Virginia, currently holds the NCAA record in the 200 IM at 1:50.08, with Douglass swimming a 1:50.15 earlier this season. Walsh, the reigning long course World champion and the Olympic silver medalist in the event, is excited about the opportunity to race her friend and teammate as well in what could be a historic meet for the Virginia team.

“We haven’t swum the 200 IM short course against each other in over a year,” Walsh said. “It’s going to be a really good race, and it’s funny to me because the media has taken it and they are all really pumped to see it. We are really good competitors and are going to push ourselves a lot in that race. I am convinced one of us is going to go, if not both of us, under 1:50 and break the American record. I know that the outcome is going to be pretty amazing.”

Dynamic Duo

Walsh and Douglass have had very similar upbringings in the sport. They both swam for Chelsea Piers Aquatic Club in Stamford, Connecticut, albeit not at the same time. Their names clutter the record board at the club’s facility that they swam at; Walsh in her early teen years, while Douglass represented the club in high school.

Walsh and Douglass both made their first Olympic team in 2021, swimming side by side in the 200m IM final at the Olympic Trials, and finished second and third at the Olympics in the event. Together, they helped Virginia win its first NCAA team title in 2021, and followed that up with a dominating performance in 2022.

This past December, they went 1-2 in the 200m IM at the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia. After so much success at the domestic level in short course yards, it was Douglass’s first major World title in short course meters.

Every time they do something big in the sport of swimming, the other is there.

“That race was really special,” Walsh said of the 200 IM at World Short Course. “After the Olympics, (Douglass) strayed away from the 200 IM because she wasn’t enjoying it as much, so to see her bounce back and get in the rhythm of the 200 IM and have the swim of a lifetime in Melbourne, that was awesome to see. As someone who has struggled with a certain event and didn’t want to swim it, just being able to succeed in it again made me really happy. I personally like it when we are swimming together and being super dominant together.”

“Going to the Olympics helped me realize I had the ability to do that and be one of the best swimmers in the world. Getting to train with Alex and have all these shared experiences with her is definitely a different experience than the normal college athlete. It’s nice to have someone with me who understands what I’m going through. Every single year I’ve gotten better at training and being confident and being excited to race and challenging myself.”

Virginia’s Quest for Three in a Row

Douglass and Walsh have potentially one more NCAA Championships together where Virginia is the heavy favourite to win a third straight. Before either of them committed, Virginia had never been higher than fifth. During Douglass’s freshman season, the team was seeded to win the 2020 meet before it was cancelled. With the addition of Walsh the following season, the team was unstoppable. The following season, Alex’s sister Gretchen joined the team, and another national title followed. Now the school has become a destination for the world’s top talent, something coach Todd DeSorbo helped build when he was hired in 2017.

Pending on what happens this week in Knoxville, this Virginia team will have a serious case as one of the best NCAA teams of all-time.

It’s something that both Walsh and Douglass have taken tremendous pride in building. Both of them credit the Virginia team for helping them come back down to Earth after the high of the 2020 Olympics, and being able to love the sport and themselves when doubts can creep in.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day challenges and struggles that being a student-athlete presents. I know what it takes to be an NCAA champion and qualify for the Olympics. So this year I told Todd at the beginning of the year, I wanted to focus on my personal life and the mental side of the sport.

“I think about my own individual role on the team and what kind of leader I want to be and what kind of leader I want to become,” Walsh said. “I think about that a lot and how the team has made me the person I am today. That’s pretty moving for me to think about."

“When it comes time to compete at NCAAs, I am swimming three individual events and four relays. I have a big role at NCAAs and I know the expectations the team has placed on me and the expectations I have for myself. Instead of shying away from that role of being a big point scorer, it excites me. It feels like an honor to have that responsibility to contribute as much as I can to Virginia. I feel very grateful.”

“To me the most special part has been being able to bring national titles back home to Virginia, and being a part of the first and second national title in swimming and diving was definitely something that was a goal going into UVA,” Douglass said. “That is something great and also leaving my own legacy at UVA is something I never really thought I would do.

“I feel like the main goal for all of us is to get our third national championship as a team,” Douglass said. “That would be the main goal - no matter how we accomplish that I will be happy. I want to finish it on a good note and enjoy myself and have a good time. For a lot of the girls in my class, this will be their last swim meet ever. Being there with them and enjoying the moment is the only thing I have on my mind.”

The Summer Ahead

After NCAAs the pair will tackle the U.S. World Championship Trials from 27 June 27 - 1 July in Indianapolis, Indiana (USA) where spots on the team to compete at the 20th World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan are on the line. The NCAAs provide a nice detour along the preparation for potentially a big summer. At last year's World Aquatic Championships - Budapest 2022, Walsh won the 200m IM and Douglass won bronze in the 200m breaststroke. With the 2023 Worlds and 2024 Olympics looming, both Walsh and Douglass have legitimate chances to win multiple gold medals.

“I am excited for World Champ Trials and hopefully Worlds,” Walsh said. “This year has been an interesting year for me in terms of my swimming career but especially this past month with ACCs and NCAAs, I have been really giddy about swimming again, and confident and excited. I don’t know if that’s because it is championship season or if something has clicked outside of the pool. I think this schedule is so much better than the schedule last year so I think the NCAA athletes will be able to show up at World Champ Trials which is always ideal for Team USA.”

“I try to just focus on the next big meet so I haven’t really thought about the long course season at all yet, which is not a bad thing for me,” Douglass said. “I’m just focusing on short course right now. I am definitely getting excited to swim long course, especially now after this season I’ve had. I think I have a chance to do really well this summer in long course.”