UVA Swimming senior Gretchen Walsh set a world record and won her second individual gold medal on Thursday on the third day of the 2024 World Aquatics 25m Championships at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
UVA alumna Paige Madden, grad student Alex Walsh and incoming freshman Katie Grimes combined to win a gold medal in world record time in the 4×200 SCM Freestyle Relay in the final event of the night.
Walsh won the 100 SCM Freestyle world title with a time of 50.31, an American record and meet record time as well as the second fastest time ever in the event. This was her second individual gold medal at the meet, having won the 50 Fly on Wednesday.
“It feels amazing,” Walsh said. “I’m hoping to keep the ball rolling for the rest of the meet. I have a lot more events to do. I just try to stay in my own lane and be confident in all the training I’ve done and what I’m capable of doing. So, it does get hard, the pressure, but managing it is definitely a skill to learn.”
Less than an hour later, Walsh posted a 55.71 in the semifinals of the 100 SCM Individual Medley, breaking her own world record of 55.98 that she set in Charlottesville in October.
This was Walsh’s third world-record swim in an individual event at the championships, having set the record in the 50 Fly in her preliminary swim only to break her own record later that day in the semifinals.
Walsh was also part of a world-record-setting performance by the American team in the 4×100 Free Relay on the first day of the meet.
In the day’s final event, the Cavaliers had three of the four spots on the 4×200 Free Relay. Alex Walsh led off the relay with Madden swimming the second leg and Grimes the third. The American squad trailed Hungary until Grimes overtook the host nation during her swim, building up a lead that Claire Weinstein cemented in the anchor swim, touching the wall at 7:30.13. The previous record was 7:30.87 set by an Australian relay in 2022.
This is the first world record for all three Cavalier swimmers. Madden swam on the US 4×200 Free Relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (an event contested in long course meters) that had beaten the standing world record time, but finished second in the race to the Chinese team’s record-setting performance.
“I am in awe right now,” Madden said. “Claire did an amazing job the last leg. There’s so many emotions right now. I think, for me, this is extra special after the Olympic relay in 2021, going under world-record pace, and getting second. This is very, very rewarding three years later.”
This is the second relay world title and world record performance by the Cavaliers at the championship as Gretchen Walsh and alumna Kate Douglass helped the US set the world standard in the 4×100 Free Relay on opening night.
Douglass had two individual swims on Thursday. She competed against Walsh in both the 100 Free and 100 IM, winning bronze in the 100 Free with a 50.73 and posting a 56.88 in the 100 IM, the second-fastest qualifying time for Friday’s event final.
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Chris Graham
