U.S. Nationals: Chasing Competition or Chasing Records No Different for Gretchen Walsh
The conclusion of her collegiate career meant Gretchen Walsh had no choice but to level up. Her quest to rewrite the short course yards record books amid Virginia’s run of NCAA dominance was complete, and her seven-gold-medal performance at the Short Course World Championships in December was a crash course in mastery of the 25-meter format.
The only place where she had anyone left to catch was long course.
Any challenges in butterfly have been quickly dashed. The 100 fly domino fell first, with Walsh taking down an eight-year-old world record at last year’s Olympic Trials. Looking back now, Walsh now thinks the initial record might have come too soon, as if she was not ready for the extra baggage that would accompany having her name on the top line of the heat sheet.
“After breaking the world record at Trials, that was a shock, and I wasn’t quite ready for the pressure that that was gonna put on my shoulders and just how it was gonna feel having the eyes on me and those kind of expectations,” Walsh said. “Now I’ve become more comfortable with the fact that it’s just like me, myself, the lane and the clock. Taking that authentic, maybe dated approach has helped me just to be focused on what I’m in control of and my goals.”
She narrowly missed out on winning Olympic gold in Paris, but she has lowered her record twice more. Her latest national win in the event came by two seconds over the swimmer who vanquished her in Paris, Torri Huske, and finishing short of the world record can hardly be considered a setback since she was seven tenths faster than any other woman has ever been.
“I feel like it was maybe a letdown I didn’t break the world record, but I need to take a step back and realize that before last month, like no one was going 54, so to even do it twice is a huge deal,” she said. “It’s important to celebrate those little wins.”
Her supremacy in the 50 fly, the event Walsh calls her favorite, can hardly be considered a surprise given her consistent early leads in 100-meter races. Indeed, Walsh is heavily favored to take over for Sarah Sjostrom as world champion in the event at next month’s global gathering.
The 100 freestyle, however, has been a trickier proposition for the 22-year-old, at least compared to her yards status as the fastest woman ever by more than eight tenths. That has been Walsh’s only event this week without a victory, but she celebrated the progress made as she has recorded her first sub-53 performances in recent weeks, most recently in her runner-up finish on night one. Echoing her Virginia teammate Jack Aikins, the winner of the men’s 200 backstroke two nights earlier, Walsh credited additional volume of aerobic training as key in sustaining her speed down the back stretch of a 100 free.
Gretchen Walsh — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
“I’m just really proud of myself with how far I’ve come in that event. It’s been such a journey over the last six years for me in that event,” Walsh said, referencing a three-year span when best times completely eluded her. “I think that every time I drop is a huge step in the right direction for me, and I take a lot of pride in that. So, I obviously want to continue to drop in that event, get better and put a lot of emphasis on it because the 400 free relay is a really big deal for America, for our women’s team.”
On her lone day off from racing at Nationals, Walsh delved into the racing approach that has helped her bounce between chasing and dominating, between races she has yet to conquer and the ones where she has no competition aside from the lofty records she owns. Walsh has learned to deceive herself, to create a façade of competitors even when there are none. That approach stays consistent when Walsh moves from short course to long course, minimizing the impact of the format transition.
“My brain kind of tricks myself into thinking that there’s all these people ahead of me and I have to chase them down,” Walsh said. “That’s what the sport is. It’s a race. And so, no matter what, whether I’m ahead, whether I’m behind, I’m using the people around me, and I’m trying to just beat the clock, beat my best time and hopefully push others around me as well.”
In the months since officially becoming a professional swimmer, the differences that Walsh has noticed have little to do with turning her full attention to international swimming and long course, which might be for a different swimmer hyper-focused on the sport to the point of overthinking.
Instead, her drive in swimming comes from the bonds shared with her University of Virginia team, which is what Walsh credits for finding “my stride again in the sport.” That connection was pushed to an awkward transition in recent months as Walsh was the only member of her graduating class choosing to continue swimming following the completion of their NCAA eligibility. Walsh admitted to feeling “a little lonely at first” as she recalibrated, seeking to maintain the energy so vital in her run through her collegiate years.
“I realized that I have this whole team of girls who might not be my age, but I’m training with side-by-side every day, and just because I might be older doesn’t mean that we can’t all still be best friends, supporting one another, being great teammates, and then sharing this bond in and out of the pool. So, I feel like once I really realized that and leaned into that, I became a lot more comfortable in the start to my professional career,” Walsh said.
“It’s doing it for a team and so having them all still there training with me reminds me that I’m not in this alone. I love the sport because of who I get to do it with and who I compete for.”
Whatever challenges Walsh faced during the initial transition period did not last long. It has been just 11 weeks since her college career concluded, and with a world record and a pair of scintillating national titles, this long course season has already been an absolute success. As Walsh continues working to become the dominant long course performer that she is short course, it’s hard to see who or what obstacle could stand in her way.
