Swimmers typically save their best efforts for event finals. Gretchen Walsh wasted no such time at the U.S. Olympic swimming team trials.
Walsh raced to a world record 55.18 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly in her semifinal heat, easily punching her ticket to the final in the event and establishing herself as the global swimmer to beat in the event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
NEW. WORLD. RECORD. 💥
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 16, 2024
Gretchen Walsh clocks 55.18 in her SEMI HEAT in the 100m women's fly!
📺 NBC & @peacock | #SwimTrials24 pic.twitter.com/3UX8qObvty
The world record is not one that has changed hands much of late. Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom set the previous mark of 55.48 seconds back in the 2016 Rio Olympics, breaking her own world record, which she set twice at the 2015 world championships (first at 55.74, then at 55.64 the next day).
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By finishing 0.3 seconds under the previous world record, Walsh established the largest change in the record from the previous mark since Sjostrom broke her own world record at the 2009 world championships. She improved her record from 56.44 to 56.06, a change of 0.38 seconds.
Walsh, 21, has never competed on the Olympic stage. The last gold medalist was Canada's Maggie Mac Neil, 24, who finished with a time of 55.59, a record for the Americas. Walsh now holds that record as well.
The second semifinal also featured a standout performance from Regan Smith, who posted a time of 55.92. Smith, 22, was the silver medalist in the 200 butterfly at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
