Gretchen Walsh Sets New American Swimming Record Again
Gretchen Walsh has once again made waves in the swimming world by breaking an American record for the fourth time in just five weeks. At the Toyota U.S. Championships held on Wednesday in Indianapolis, Walsh claimed victory in the women’s 50m butterfly, clocking in at 24.66 seconds. This impressive performance not only broke her previous national record of 24.93 seconds set on May 2 but also secured her a spot in the upcoming World Championships in Singapore this July and August.
“I wanted to achieve a personal best; that would have meant another American record,” said Walsh in an interview on Peacock. “But I didn’t expect to break it by that much.” With this achievement, Walsh now holds the title of the second-fastest woman in history, only behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström, who currently holds the world record at 24.43 seconds.
According to data from USA Swimming, Walsh has established a total of 25 individual American records in the past year, along with tying for a 26th, across various events including short-course yards, short-course meters, and long-course meters. The 50m butterfly will make its Olympic debut in 2028 and has been included in the World Championships lineup since 2001. Walsh is also recognized as the fastest woman in history for the 100m butterfly, having broken both her own world and American records twice on May 3. She will compete in this event at the nationals on Thursday, with the finals scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, live on Peacock.
In other highlights from Wednesday’s events, Olympic bronze medalist Luke Hobson won the men’s 200m freestyle with a time of 1:43 phwin. com login.73, becoming the second-fastest American in history behind Michael Phelps and the fifth fastest globally. Notably, his performance marked the fastest recorded time ever in a U.S. pool, surpassing Phelps’ time from the 2008 Olympic Trials. “1:43, that’s kind of been a goal of mine for a couple of years now,” Hobson remarked. He expressed his long-term aim of breaking the current world record of 1:42.00, set in 2009, which is the oldest individual world record in an Olympic event.
During the preliminaries, 16-year-old Luka Mijatovic achieved the fastest 200m freestyle time ever recorded by someone of his age, with a time of 1:45.92, according to World Aquatics’ database. Mijatovic is also the second-youngest male competitor at the upcoming 2024 Olympic Trials. His performance surpassed Phelps’ national age group record for 17- and 18-year-olds, although he finished eighth in the finals. philwin app login
Claire Weinstein posted the world’s best time of 1:55.92 in the women’s 200m freestyle, narrowly beating Katie Ledecky by 34 hundredths of a second. This win follows Weinstein’s eighth-place finish at the Olympics and her previous success over Ledecky in consecutive trials meets. Ledecky noted that she does not plan to swim the 200m freestyle at the World Championships, having previously dropped it from her schedule in 2022, 2023, and 2024, although she will still participate in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Claire Curzan achieved a personal best by winning the 200m backstroke, besting American record holder Regan Smith by 75 hundredths of a second. Curzan swept the backstroke events at the February 2024 World Championships but narrowly missed qualifying for the Paris Olympic team. Meanwhile, Jack Aikins recorded a personal best of 1:54.25 in the men’s 200m backstroke, just one year after missing the Olympic team by a single spot in both backstroke events; his time would have secured the Olympic gold by one hundredth. Olympic champion Kate Douglass won the 200m breaststroke by one second over her former University of Virginia teammate, Alex Walsh, who is Gretchen Walsh’s older sister legit online games to earn money agent cgebet.
What are your thoughts on the performances of these athletes at the U.S. Championships?