"So back" – Regan Smith and Kate Douglass gear up for Short Course Championships 2024 after World Cup success

American swimmers Regan Smith and Kate Douglass were recently spotted together in their practice sessions. This comes just a few days before the beginning of the 2024 FINA World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest.

Both Douglass and Smith will be spearheading the US team in the event after their successful campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics where they clinched two gold medals each. In addition, Lily King, Gretchen Walsh, and Katie Grimes will also grace the team in this competition.

With the event set to start on Tuesday (Dec 10), both swimmers were seen in the training sessions at the Duna Arena. Smith took to her Instagram handle to share glimpses of their time together at the pool. In the photos, both swimmers could be seen wearing their training suits. Smith wrote in the caption:

"We’re so back"

Smith and Douglass also competed together during the 2024 Swimming World Cup where they clinched nine and 11 gold medals respectively across the three meets.

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Regan Smith sheds light on her rivalry with Kate Douglass

Regan Smith after winning the 100m Butterfly event at the 2024 Swimming World Cup Singapore Stop (Image via: Getty Images)

Regan Smith recently narrated an incident involving Kate Douglass from the 2024 Swimming World Cup. This came just a few days after the conclusion of the three-stop meet.

In an episode of the Unfiltered Waters podcast, Smith revealed that she and Douglass were in healthy competition with each other during the World Cup. The 22-year-old also mentioned that Douglass encouraged her to break the world record so that they could be tied on the same points. She said:

"I came into the World Cup and Kate and I started getting very competitive with each other with the points but it was in the most lighthearted way. I remember I was on the bus to the last session in Singapore. "

She further added:

"I was calculating and I knew I had to break the world record by 3/10th or something in order to tie Kate in the overall point standards. So she texted me and she was like, "break the world record tonight, let's go."

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Smith did break the 200m and 100m Backstroke World records on the last two daysof the competition. She clocked a time of 1:58.83 in the 200m event and cloked 54.27 seconds in the 100m event.

However, as the event concluded, Regan Smith finished with 178.4 points, just 0.1 seconds behind Kate Douglass, who eventually clinched the top position in the 2024 Swimming World Cup.