She's getting to be incredible

 

This post is about swimmer extraordinaire Kate Douglass.

Just a few weeks ago, she set a world record in the 50 meter (long course, of course) freestyle.  Several days after that, her former teammate at Virginia and current teammate on the USA team, Gretchen Walsh, broke that record.  

So, at the Pan Pacific Championships that just concluded in Irvine, California, Douglass rebroke/reset the 50 meter freestyle world record by a few hundredths of a second.  That happened in the preliminary heats in the morning.

So, in the evening, in the lane right next to Walsh, and with a few other darned good sprinters in pursuit, she did it again. But she didn't just lower it a bit -- she eradicated it by nearly three-tenths of a second. In a swimming sprint, that's enormous.   

Furthermore, in about 20 minutes, she was second in the 200 meter breaststroke, which is a crazy mix. Maybe she was a little tired.

But not so tired that she couldn't anchor the winning 4x100 meter medley relay -- over the Aussies. (OK, they were missing a couple of stars. But still, it was the Aussies.)

But wait -- the night before, leading off the 4x100 meter freestyle relays, which also beat the Aussies, she missed breaking the world record for the 100 meter freestyle by one-hundredth of a second. 

Seriously, that is a massive set of accomplishments over a couple of days.

Finally, I think she's also taking her image a bit more seriously, too. I tried to find some advertisements I'd seen recently, but couldn't immediately locate them. 

Instead, if one wonders how she's doing this, one clue is her arms. She's slender, but ...

Combine those with unnatural flexibility, and she can slice through the water with power.

By the way, was she even mentioned on ESPN Sports Center?

If she was, I missed it.