Rio 2016: Kathleen Baker wins Silver in Women’s 100 Back

Cal sophomore Kathleen Baker has continue to surprise a lot of people by winning the Silver medal in the women’s 100 Back final tonight. Steadily improving on her personal best in this event in just the past several months (she did not swim the 100 yard backstroke all that well at the NCAA back in March, placing 13th), Baker managed to keep the streak alive for Golden Bears winning a medal in this event.

Natalie Coughlin in 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing and then Missy Franklin (I know, it was before she was affiliated with Cal) in 2012 London had won the Gold medals in this event.

Baker had the lead for ~90% of the race before Hungarian Katinka Hosszu (and USC alum) overtook Baker for the Gold at the end.

Housszu finished with a time of 58.45 over Baker’s 58.75. Baker did managed to stay just ahead of a two way tie for 3rd. The two Bronzes are awarded to Kylie Masse of Canada and Yuanhui Fu of China, both with the time of 58.76. The 58.75 second is another personal best for Kathleen Baker.

Despite being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, Baker shows that one can still be an elite athlete in spite of that.

In addition to earning the Silver medal, Baker also found her missing earring from the prelims.

It did take some effort to retrieve the missing pearl earring though.

Congratulations to the Cal sophomore on the brand new Silver medal.

Kathleen Baker will also swim in the Women’s 4x100 Medley relay along side Calympians Dana Vollmer and Abbey Weitzeil on Saturday. She should be able to earn another medal in that event.

Calympians Medal Count:

2 Golds, 3 Silvers, 1 Bronze

Dana Vollmer (USA) - Silver from Women’s 4x100 Free Relay, Bronze from Women’s 100 Fly

Abbey Weitzeil (USA) - Silver from Women’s 4x100 Free Relay

Nathan Adrian (USA) - Gold from Men’s 4x100 Free Relay

Anthony Ervin (USA) - Gold from Men’s 4x100 Free Relay

Kathleen Baker (USA) - Silver from Women’s 100 Back

GO BEARS!