Gretchen Walsh Sets World Record, Breaks Three More American Records At NCAA Dual Meet

With the World Aquatics’ Swimming World Cup series kicking off today, the eyes of the swimming world were fixed on Shanghai, China—the host of the first stop on the series. But all eyes shifted towards Gretchen Walsh in the Virginia Cavaliers’ first dual meet of the season, as the senior broke four American records, the last of which was also a world record.

The 21-year-old is fresh off a successful Olympic debut, where she picked up four medals, including two relay golds. This summer was Walsh’s breakout in the Olympic-sized 50-meter pool, but she’s one of the most successful swimmers in the 25-yard pool because of how strong her underwaters are.

NCAA dual meets are almost always raced in the 25-yard pool. But Virginia and Florida, two of the powerhouse programs in the league, agreed to race the meet in short course meters—a 25-meter length pool—to give their stars reps in that size pool before the Short Course World Championships in December.

That decision set the stage for Walsh to do something special—she had hardly any experience in the short-course meter pool since it’s not a distance Americans often race in, but given the speed she has in the yards pool and her sensational summer, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for her to show what she was capable of in short course meters.

Walsh seized that opportunity with both hands. Her best swim was her last, as she closed out her meet by shattering the world record in the 100-meter IM, which features 25 meters of each stroke. Walsh swam 55.98, becoming the first swimmer to break 56 seconds in the event as she bettered the legendary Katinka Hosszu’s mark of 56.51 by .53 seconds.

“Leading into this meet I didn’t look at any of the records,” said Walsh after the meet in an interview on Virginia Swimming and Diving’s X page. “I just kind of wanted to see what I could do. We suited up today, wearing racing suits and I just wanted to swim as fast as I could.”

Walsh’s swim erased the American record of 56.99 that 200 breaststroke Olympic champion Kate Douglass swam hours earlier to win the event at the Shanghai stop of the World Cup series, which is also being held in short course meters. Douglass was the first American to break 57 seconds, and now Walsh has blown by her, posting a time 1.01 seconds faster.

Before her world record swim, Walsh fired off three American records during the first hour of Virginia’s meet against the Florida Gators. She set her first American record leading off the 200-meter medley relay for the Cavaliers, clocking 25.37 seconds in the 50-meter backstroke. That broke the American record of 25.54 that her Cavalier teammate Claire Curzan swam at the 2022 Short Course World Championships.

Next, Walsh doubled up on backstroke American records. In the 100-meter backstroke, she brought the American record under 55 seconds for the first time, swimming the race in 54.89 seconds. Both of Walsh’s backstroke records were U.S. Open records, which mark the fastest swims on U.S. soil.

“I feel like I am capable of more in that race, I feel like I’m getting used to the whole short course meters thing so we’ll see but I think there’s more to come,” said Walsh in the same interview where she walked through her events of the day.

Her third American record came in the 50-meter freestyle, where she fired off a 23.10, undercutting the American record by .34 seconds, a huge margin for a 50-meter event.

This was Walsh and the Virginia Cavaliers first official dual meet of the 2024-25 NCAA season. Though they won’t race in short course meters again, for Walsh—already named to the United States’ World Championship roster—this meet was a stepping stone towards more international success later this year.