"I wear the pants" - Kate Douglass jokes on being "in charge" of friendship with fellow Paris Olympics gold medalist Reagan Smith

Olympic champion swimmer Kate Douglass opened up on her bonding with compatriot Regan Smith and their bonding before and after the Paris Olympics. The two recently shattered several records at the Swimming World Cup 2024, earning approximately $330,000 in the process.

The two swimmers joined the SwimSwam podcast broadcasted on November 10 and talked about the reasons that motivated them to continue to compete even after the Paris Olympics. Talking about competing at the Swimming World Cup after the Paris Olympics, Douglass mentioned,

"I mean for a meet like this, you kind of have to, like we kind of had to commit to World Aquatics that we were doing this back in the spring, and so obviously it was a little nerve-wracking because I was like I don’t know if I’m gonna want to do this after the OIympics.” [6:54 onwards]

Douglass also recalled why she wasn't going ahead without the company of Smith.

"But it just kind of seemed like an experience I didn’t want to say no to. Uh, but I feel this year is kind of just all about new experiences and having fun with swimming and so that was why I wanted to do it. But I also was like I’m not doing it by myself, and so me and Regan were kind of you know both talking about you know if we wanted to do it or not and how we would only do it if the other one was doing it.”

Regan Smith endorsed her claims, revealing that Kate Douglass takes charge of most of their things, during which Kate cheekily mentioned that she wears Smith's pants. Both had fought neck to neck in the Swimming World Cup 2024, where Douglass emerged victorious overall by just a margin of 0.1 point.

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Regan Smith on the camaraderie with Kate Douglass

Regan Smith on the camaraderie with Kate Douglass [Image for Representational Purposes] [Image Source : Getty]

Regan Smith has been extremely supportive of Kate Douglass before and after the Paris Olympics. In the podcast on SwimSwam, she opened up on the camaraderie between the two.

When asked if tournaments like the Swimming World Cup affected the friendship, Smith recounted her 200m backstroke event, where she broke the world record in the short course segment. She mentioned,

"When I touched the wall on the two back, um, I knew that it wasn’t enough for us to tie. So immediately upon looking at the board, I was like, ‘God dang it.’ That would have been so fun.”

Smith also revealed that she didn't want to beat Douglass, and would have wanted at least one meet to have been a tie. In her words,

"I knew that, like, in order to tie or beat Kate, I had to break the world record, and I was like, ‘F**k, okay, I got to go tonight.' ”

After earning honors for the USA at the Paris Olympics, Kate Douglass and Regan Smith shared five world records and 11 American records between each other at the Swimming World Cup. Smith gave tough competition to Douglass, coming second overall with a total of 187.4 points, while Douglass won the World Cup with a total of 187.5 points.