Hongkonger Siobhan Haughey completed an astounding double at the Toyota US Open on Friday, defeating Katie Ledecky in the 200m freestyle and reigning Olympic Champion Lydia Jacoby in the 100m breaststroke, with a break of only around 20 minutes between the two.
The 26-year-old Olympic silver medallist, whose father is Irish, is the grandniece of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
Haughey's 200m free time of 1:54.20 is a US Open record, passing Ledecky's 1:55.47, set in 2021. Her personal best is 1:53.92, which won her silver at Tokyo in 2021.
Ledecky swam 1:56.29 on Friday to take second in the 200m free, and Simone Manuel took third in 1:57.37. Mary-Sophie Harvey and Minna Abraham swam PBs of 1:57.70 and 1:57.96 to take fourth and fifth place respectively.
Haughey knocked over two seconds off her PB with her winning time of 1:06.05 in the 100m breaststroke final, while Jacoby came in second with 1:06.20 and Kotryna Teterevkova in third with 1:06.96.
"I was not expecting that," said Haughey after her 100m win, who had earlier explained "I'm...doing a lot of events here, so to me it's just a training meet."
"I knew I wouldn't have much time in between. I don't swim the 100m breast that often, so I was really surprised by the time. I treat the [double] like training, like doing two sets of race pace. Fifteen minutes is a decent amount of time in terms of training, so if I think about it that way it's easier to manage."
