By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam
2025 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, June 3 – Saturday, June 7, 2025
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Indiana University Natatorium
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- World Championship Selection Criteria
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
WOMEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE — BY THE NUMBERS:
- World Record: 2:17.55 – Evgeniia Chikunova, Russia (2023)
- World Junior Record: 2:19.64 – Victoria Gunes, Turkey (2015)
- American Record: 2:19.24 – Kate Douglass (2024)
- U.S. Open Record: 2:19.24 – Kate Douglass (2024)
We’re less than a week out from the marquee domestic event of the year, as the American team for the 2025 World Championships in Singapore will be determined in a few days’ time at the U.S. National Championships in Indiana.
Up in the final week of our preview schedule is the women’s 200 breaststroke—strong at the top with two active swimmers under 2:20 and another in the low-2:22 range, but definitely one of the weaker events in terms of depth.
Kate Douglass (Photo Credit: Jack Spitser)
THE CLEAR FAVORITE
The reigning Olympic champion and current American record holder Kate Douglass is the clear favorite to win the 200 breast at the Trials—hands down.
Those two titles alone could be enough for us to slot her into the #1 spot and move straight on to the other contenders, but we’re not going to do that.
Let’s start from the beginning of Douglass’ journey in this event. When she made her first senior international team at the 2020 (held in 2021) U.S. Olympic Trials, she qualified in the 200 IM and went on to earn individual bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. Notably, she didn’t even swim the 200 breast at those Trials—yet three years later, she not only won the event at the next Olympic Trials but also straight-up captured Olympic gold.
Douglass first made waves in the long course 200 breast at the 2022 U.S. World Championship Trials, where she placed 2nd behind Lilly King (whom we’ll discuss in detail later), logging a massive personal best of 2:21.43 to obliterate her previous mark of 2:24.40 set in prelims at the same meet. At the World Championships, she added time—the only meet where she has significantly added from Trials—but managed to post a 2:23.20 to earn bronze.
In 2023, the story was much the same at Trials: she finished 2nd behind King again, this time notching a lifetime best of 2:21.22. She then upgraded from world bronze to silver, touching just behind the reigning Olympic champion Tatjana Smith (née Schoenmaker) in a near-identical 2:21.23—this on the back end of a double with the 100 free about 45 minutes earlier, where she finished 4th, just a tenth shy of the podium.
Fast forward to 2024: Douglass really took off. She kicked off her year at the Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville with a shiny new American record of 2:19.30, taking down Rebecca Soni’s legendary 2012 mark of 2:19.59—set when Soni won Olympic gold in London and became the first woman to