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By Joyce Farrell

Hometown Hero Kate Douglass delighted Pelham’s kids (and their parents) when she appeared at the Picture House for an interview with Clayton Bushong, the Executive Director of The Picture House Regional Film Center, on November 19. An amazing athlete who won two gold medals and two silver medals in Paris this year at the Summer Olympics, Kate patiently answered questions from the audience as well.

Kate’s swimming career began when she was growing up in Pelham and going to the NYAC for swimming in the summer. Once she started competing, she sometimes had a love/hate relationship with swimming and would occasionally cry on the way to practice. As she got older, however, she realized the positives of the sport, such as having fun training with friends.

For Kate, it’s the little goals that keep her going and eventually bring her to the bigger goals. For example, when she was in high school, her goal wasn’t to be an Olympian but to be on an NCAA college team- which is why she decided to go to the University of Virginia, a school known to have an incredible coach. She enjoyed being part of a college team because the teammates pushed, motivated, and supported each other to achieve a common goal.

Although the Paris Olympics is what everyone was talking about this year, it wasn’t Kate’s first Olympics. She competed in the Olympics in Tokyo, where she won a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley. Because of COVID, it was a much different experience than the Paris Olympics. There were no fans or family, and she wasn’t able to do much there other than compete.

When asked by Bushong what the scariest part of competing is for her, Kate responded that it’s waiting in the ready room for the next competition. She feels a lot of pressure just sitting there next to her competitors, thinking and waiting to walk out.

She was thrilled that her first medal at the Paris Olympics, a silver medal for the Women’s 4×100 Medley Freestyle Relay, happened so early in competition because it took a little pressure off her.

She went on to win another silver for Women’s 200m Medley and two golds, one for Women’s 200m Breaststroke and another for 4×100 Medley Relay.

This past fall, Kate traveled to Asia for the 2024 Aquatics World Cup in Singapore, where she broke her own world record with a time of 2:12.72 in the women’s 200m breaststroke short course; her previous time was 2:14.16. Although it was exciting, she shared that winning an Olympic gold medal was more exciting because that can only happen every four years; a record can be broken at any time.

Kate typically trains six days a week, two hours each morning and one each afternoon. In addition to training in the pool, she lifts weights or, lately, does Pilates, and she always takes Sundays off. Currently, Kate is training in Virginia but is not focusing on the next Olympic Games – yet. As usual, she is focusing on smaller goals, such as the upcoming World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, taking place December 10-15. We look forward to seeing where her “small goals” lead!