UVA’s Gretchen Walsh added a silver medal in the 100 Fly on Sunday, her second silver in as many days at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Saturday, Welsh and UVA alum Kate Douglass won a silver as part of the 4×100 Freestyle relay team.
In Sunday’s 100 Fly final, Torri Huske, a native of Arlington, out-touched Walsh at the wall, finishing in 55.59 seconds, a sliver ahead of Walsh’s 55.63.
On Saturday, Walsh had posted a 55.38 in the semifinals of the 100 Fly to set an Olympic record in the event.
That was ahead of the 4×100 relay final, in which Walsh swam the lead leg of the relay, clocking a 52.98, with Douglass following with a split of 52.55. Huske and Simone Manuel swam the final two legs, with Manuel out-touching the Chinese team to secure the silver in an American-record time of 3:30.20.
Australia took the gold in the event.
Douglass swam the anchor leg in the prelims. She won the 100-yard Freestyle at the U.S. Trials in June but chose to drop it as an individual event in Paris.
The relay win was the first Olympic medal for Walsh, who is a first-time Olympian. It is the second career medal for Douglass, who won bronze in the 200 IM in Tokyo.
Walsh now owns the three fastest times in the event’s history.
In the other women’s final of the day, Cavalier alum Paige Madden placed sixth in the 400 Free, posting a 4:02.26.
Madden was seeded sixth in the final after swimming a 4:03.34 in the morning prelim.
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Chris Graham
