Gretchen Walsh: A Rising Star in Swimming
Gretchen Walsh is a 20-year-old swimmer who has been creating waves in the world of competitive swimming. Having captured three individual NCAA titles, along with three runner-up finishes and eight relay titles, she has established herself as a force to be reckoned with in college swimming. She holds the fastest time ever recorded in the 100-yard backstroke and is second-quickest in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle. Despite her impressive performance on the collegiate level, her breakthrough in the world championships has remained elusive.
However, recent results suggest that Walsh is on the verge of taking that final step. With just a hundredth-second short of qualifying for the Worlds in the 50-meter free, Walsh missed out in 2022. At the U.S. International Team Trials, her performance in the 100-meter events had been disappointing, which put her 22nd in the 100 free prelims and 15th in the 100 back prelims. Walsh and her coach at the University of Virginia, Todd DeSorbo, found out that she wasn’t attacking the first part of her 100-meter races with the requisite intensity.
To remedy this issue, DeSorbo suggested that Walsh race in the 100-meter swims with a practice suit to overcome the pressure and expectations she felt in these events. The strategy worked, and she swam her fastest time in three years, 53.86 in the 100-meter event, and was able to get under 1:00 in the 100 back by the time of the U.S. Nationals in late July.
This year, Walsh has been building on her momentum and is a top contender for the upcoming Nationals in Indianapolis. She has not raced long course extensively since the NCAA Championships. However, her results in the NCAP Elite Qualifier were quite remarkable. Over the weekend, she cut down seven tenths from her best time in the 100 butterfly, finishing with a 56.73 that is fourth in the world this year. This performance puts her behind only Regan Smith among Americans and ahead of several butterfly specialists such as Torri Huske and Claire Curzan. The 100 butterfly event looks to be one of the most competitive races of the approaching Nationals with Walsh’s teammate, Kate Douglass, also in the running.
Walsh’s Impressive Performance
Walsh’s impressive performance in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle event has made her a real threat in the upcoming Nationals. Her time of 24.52 in the 50-meter event would have tied for second in last year’s qualifying race, and her time of 54.03 in the 100-meter freestyle is already ahead of the 54.09 swum by Mallory Comerford in last year’s International Team Trials that secured a relay alternate spot for the Worlds. So far this year, Abbey Weitzeil is the only American faster than Walsh in the 50-meter freestyle, and Walsh ranks third in the 100 behind Weitzeil and Katie Ledecky.
Although Walsh didn’t participate in the 100 back at NCAP Elite Qualifier, she has shown improved abilities in holding speed over the length of a 50-meter pool. With this in mind, she would have been in contention had she participated. Walsh’s clocked 48.26 in the 100-yard back two months ago, which was a half-second faster than anyone else on record. Only one other swimmer has ever broken 49 seconds, and at the NCAs, she had already beaten her main rivals for the second U.S. spot in the event, including Curzan, Katherine Berkoff, Phoebe Bacon, and Rhyan White, rather handily.
Walsh has been looking forward to the day she becomes part of an international team, and now, her dream may come true with her prime position to have plenty of opportunities at the upcoming Nationals. After a long-awaited return to a 53-second 100 freestyle last year’s Nationals, the next step for Walsh is to help the United States at a major event. With her recent performance and the potential she still has, she may find herself living that dream soon.
