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By Ian Ransom
PARIS (Reuters) -Kate Douglass underlined her remarkable versatility with gold in the women's 200 metres breaststroke at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, beating Tokyo champion Tatjana Smith who bows out of swimming with a silver medal in her final race.
Taking full advantage of her turning prowess, American Douglass nudged ahead of Smith after every length and held off the South African to touch the wall in 2:19.24 at La Defense Arena.
World champion Tes Schouten won bronze for the Netherlands, her first Olympic medal.
Douglass's victory was her first Olympic gold and second of the meet following her silver medal in the women's 4x100 metres freestyle.
A master of all strokes, she also took the 200m individual medley bronze at Tokyo and is a major contender for gold in the same event in Paris.
"I'm really excited. I feel like for a while I wasn't sure if Olympic champion was going to be possible for me to say, and now it's just really exciting to see it happen," the 22-year-old told reporters.
Having won the 100m breaststroke gold on day three, Smith was bidding to match compatriot Penny Heyns who took both the 100 and 200m golds at the 1996 Atlanta Games and remains the only women's swimmer to do so.
She had to settle for silver but it gave her a total haul of four Olympic medals -- two golds and two silvers -- surpassing Chad le Clos (one gold, three silvers) as South Africa's most decorated Games swimmer.
"It was an amazing race and to end it off with a silver but with a fight was the best way to end it," the 27-year-old told reporters.
"I don't know if I'm going to even look at the pool for the next 10 years.
"It's so hard as a swimmer to actually swim for fun. I don't know why. If there's like a pool party or something, no one wants to swim."
Schouten, who finished nearly two seconds behind Douglass, was happy with her bronze but struggled to process the achievement.
"Now I'm just a bit like, 'OK, did it really happen or is it a dream?'
"I think it's because this is something you've trained for the last three years since Tokyo and especially the last season.
"And then you're hoping you will get the medal and then it becomes true and you're like, 'Huh?'"
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
