Gretchen Walsh Tracking to Bring Individual Dominance to Long Course Worlds
While she wracked up NCAA titles and American records in short course yards, Gretchen Walsh took a little longer to find her footing in long course. And even while representing the United States and winning medals at the 2023 World Championships and 2024 Olympics, Walsh never the singular star. On the other hand, her short course meters debut brought seven gold medals and individual world records in four events at the Short Course World Championship in December, a performance considered among the best ever in the 25-meter course.
But in her first long course meet since the Paris Olympics, Walsh sent a message to the world that the same sprint might could be coming to a 50-meter pool near you, perhaps even this summer in the temporary venue set to host World Championship swimming in Singapore.
Walsh is coming off her college finale in which she matched or exceeded records in all her individual events, although she improved by smaller margins than she had in 2023 or 2024. That cannot be considered too surprising, not with Walsh having basically maxed out her underwater dolphin kickouts that comprise more than half the 25-yard college course.
For the rest of her career, improvements will come on top of the water, with Walsh still building the endurance needed to hold her speed throughout the 50-meter length and particularly down the back stretch. Those efforts were on display at the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series, Walsh’s first meet as an official professional swimmer, and it’s why the 22-year-old returned to Charlottesville, Va., with the world’s fastest times for 2025 in all four of her main events.
Gretchen Walsh (left) with Torri Huske after winning 100 butterfly Olympic medals in Paris — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The primary highlights were Walsh’s world-record-setting performances in the 100 butterfly, first a time of 55.09 in prelims to clip her own mark of 55.18 set last June and then a 54.60 in the final to swim as she knocked off a further half-second. Walsh might have dipped into 54-low territory if not for long reaches on her turn and finish costing her momentum.
Most notable was Walsh’s improvement on the back half, the portion of the race that cost her when Torri Huske ran her down for Olympic gold in Paris. In her latest world record, her homecoming split of 29.32 was four tenths quicker than she swam when she first broke the world record last June and a full second faster than the 30.33 she posted in the Paris final.
A day earlier, Walsh had joined Sarah Sjostrom as the only swimmers to ever break 25 in the 50 fly, lowering her own American record. Sjostrom has been the queen of the 50 fly, having captured six consecutive world titles, but the 31-year-old Swede will be absent from competition this year as she prepares to welcome her first child in August. That means that Walsh he clear world-title favorite in that event, although she still has a long way to go to catch Sjostrom’s world record of 24.43.
Additionally, Walsh dipped under 53 seconds for the first time in the 100 freestyle, holding off Huske, the Olympic silver medalist in the race, at the finish by five hundredths. Walsh owns the world’s fastest time in the event at 52.90. She raced the 50 free less than a half-hour after her 100 fly world record but got to the wall first in that as well, her 24.33 clocking good enough to for a world-leading time once again.
Reacting to her performance in Fort Lauderdale, Walsh told USA Swimming, “I need to set some new goals,” indicating that she did not expect to reach this level of performance so early in the season.
“It was shocking. I did not expect to be here doing this,” Walsh said. “I definitely need to keep working and finding new motivation because I have surpassed so many barriers I talked about prior to the season. I might have to get creative with goals, not make them time-based. I think that helps me see it more as an opportunity to execute, versus having to go by a time. I’m really happy with where I’m at. I’m looking forward to getting back to Charlottesville, graduating and beginning this pro journey. It started on such a high note; this is going to be awesome.”
Walsh is a near-lock to swim at her second long course World Championships later this year, and if the Fort Lauderdale meet was any indication, it could look much like her efforts from the short course edition of the global meet from December. Simply repeating her butterfly marks from this early May checkpoint would surely be sufficient for gold in both distances.
As for the freestyle events, Sjostrom is out of the picture after sweeping 50 and 100-meter gold in Paris. Walsh was fourth in the 50 free at the Games, one hundredth behind China’s Zhang Yufei. Zhang has not competed this year, so the toughest competition could come from silver-medal-winning Australian Meg Harris, Poland’s Kasia Wasick and fast-improving swimmers Florene Gaspard (Sweden), Sara Curtis (Italy), Eva Okaro and Milou Van Wijk (both Great Britain). Of course, Walsh has already been quicker than any of these swimmers this year despite her only 50 freestyle times coming off a tight double.
The 100 free remains the trickiest event on Walsh’s program; sub-53 only gets a swimmer so far considering all seven swimmers aside from Walsh broke that barrier in the Olympic final. Even without Sjostrom in the field and even if Walsh leads the field at the halfway point, there will be plenty of swimmers with superior endurance chasing her down the stretch. The list could include Huske, two-time world champion Mollie O’Callaghan of Australia. two-time Olympic medalist Siobhan Haughey, last year’s world champion Marrit Steenbergen and others.
That said, her early-season times in freestyle should send shockwaves that she is capable of seriously contending in the long course versions of the events in addition to her status as butterfly favorite. By the end of the summer, Gretchen Walsh might be a short-course-first swimmer no longer.
