Katharine Berkoff

Katharine Berkoff (born January 28, 2001) is an American female swimmer who competed for North Carolina State University and won a gold medal in the 4x100 medley relay and a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. A prolific international competitor, she won fifteen medals, including five golds, at Short course and Long course World Championships between 2021 and 2024 in individual backstroke and both freestyle and medley relay events.

Career Early career Berkoff was born in 2001. She is the daughter of Shirley Gustafson and David Berkoff, a former swimmer who won four medals at the Summer Olympics.

Berkoff grew up in Missoula, Montana, and attended Hellgate High School.

She competed at the 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Championships in August. She won the silver medal in the 100 m backstroke and the bronze medal in the 200 m backstroke.

In July 2019, Berkoff competed at the 2019 Summer Universiade. She won the gold medal in the 100 m backstroke and broke the meet record. Then, she finished fourth in the 50 m backstroke. In the women's 4 × 100 m medley relay, she won a gold medal.

North Carolina State University Berkoff attended North Carolina State University, where she swam for Head Coach Braden Holloway, a ten-time Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year. She would become NC State's first female Olympian. She started competing for North Carolina in her freshman year from 2019 to 2020, competing through 2023.

2021 Berkoff competed at the 2021 NCAA Division I Championships in March. She won the gold medal in the 100 y backstroke and finished sixth in the 200 y backstroke. Berkoff won gold medals in the women's 200 y medley relay and the women's 400 y medley relay. She won a bronze medal in the women's 200 y freestyle relay.

Favored to medal in the Women's 100 m backstroke, she won the bronze medal with a time of 57.98. In a close finish, Australia's Kaylee McKeown took the gold in the Olympic record time of 57.33, and America's Regan Smith took the silver with a time of 57.66.