Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh Set for Historic Worlds 100 IM Tilt
The short-course season has plenty to recommend it as an engrossing supplement to the long-course campaign. Nothing may be as exciting as the chance to see the 100-meter individual medley raced internationally, an opportunity to test all kinds of assertions as to how speed and stroke proficiency collide over 50-some testing seconds.
With all the recent defections from this month’s World Short-Course Championships in Budapest, the women’s 100 IM shapes up as perhaps the meet’s most intriguing matchup, with the titanic collision of one-time Virginia teammates Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh.
Traditionally, the U.S. has gotten little from the women’s 100 IM on the international stage, even by the more modest standards for American success over a course more emphasized in Europe. The last time an American medaled in the 100 IM at a Short-Course Worlds was Ariana Kukors’ gold medal in 2010. (Try to guess the minor medalists in that one; guarantee you won’t.) The U.S. didn’t even enter a women in the 100 IM in the 2022 meet in Melbourne.
But two years later, they possess the reigning powers. On the same day that Douglass lowered the American record, Walsh went right ahead and blasted away the world record. Before October, only two Americans – Beata Nelson and Melanie Margalis – had ever broken 58 seconds. Walsh’s best time now starts with a 55.
Douglass tied Nelson’s American mark of 57.72 in prelims of the Shanghai World Cup stop, then 56.99 to become the first American under 57 seconds. As the World Cup snaked through Asia, Douglass lowered that time – 56.97 in Incheon, 56.57 in Singapore.
Massive steps, all, but overlooked since Walsh in a dual meet against Florida went 55.98 to rout a half-second out of Katinka Hosszu’s world record, which had stood since 2017.
As it stands, the sub-57 club in the event is Hosszu nine times, Douglass three times and the solitary Walsh swim atop it all. It took 57.80 for Anastasia Gorbenko to win the event in Abu Dhabi in 2021 and 57.53 for Marrit Steenbergen to do it in Melbourne a year later.
It would seem a shock for anyone other than one of the UVA pair to come away with gold from Budapest. But it’s also unlikely to see their areas of expertise converge in this way.
Douglass is arguably the most versatile swimmer the American program has seen, with her ability to star from the 50 freestyle and 200 breaststroke. The latter brought her gold in Paris after her second straight medal in the 200 IM. She won gold medals in Melbourne in the 200 breast and 200 IM.
Walsh is pure speed, but with polish. She’s the world record holder and the Olympic silver medalist in the long-course 100 butterfly, like Douglass returning four medals from Paris. Her international resume includes the 50 free (gold at the 2019 World Junior Championships) and 50 fly (bronze at the 2023 World Championships).
There’s no one way to make a 100-IMer. Kukors was a pure IMer. Margalis’s IM proficiency extended to the 400 IM, and both she and Kukors have international medals on 800 free relays. Abbey Weitzeil, who finished ninth in the event at the 2021 World Championships, is an out-and-out sprinter.
The roads to reach Budapest are very different. But for both Douglass and Walsh, they seemed destined to lead to the podium.
