What Gretchen Walsh Has Done within the 50 Butterfly is Gorgeous

What Gretchen Walsh Has Done within the 50 Butterfly is Mind-Boggling

With the second cease of the World Cup circuit slated for this weekend, an apparent query lingers: What will Gretchen Walsh do subsequent?

The 22-year-old Walsh could be the best short-course swimmer in historical past, having blasted a bevy of information in yards and meters. At final yr’s World Championships in Budapest, the American star collected seven gold medals and established particular person world information within the 50 freestyle, 50 butterfly, 100 butterfly and 100 particular person medley. Just a few months later, she powered the University of Virginia to its fifth consecutive NCAA championship whereas closely modifying the collegiate file e-book.

During the primary leg of the World Cup tour in Carmel (Ind.), Walsh was sometimes dynamic. En path to the highest of the factors standings, Walsh secured victories within the 50 butterfly, 100 fly and 100 IM. The 50 fly was received in a world-record time, as Walsh blasted a mark of 23.72 for her two laps. It’s a time nobody else has remotely approached, and the efficiency deserves a better look.

When Walsh clocked 23.72 within the 50 fly, she broke her earlier world file by .22, a large margin for a 50-meter race and a sport outlined by hundredths. Walsh now owns the seven-fastest marks in historical past, with that whole anticipated to develop by the top of the World Cup collection. More, Walsh’s world file sits .66 quicker than Sweden’s Therese Alshammar (24.38), the No. 2 performer of all-time. Alshammar posted her finest time in the course of the 2009 World Cup in Singapore, when the super-suit period was at its peak.

How Walsh’s ability within the 50 fly ranks traditionally among the many finest freestyle efforts on the distance supplies higher perspective regarding its sensational nature. Her international normal within the 50 fly would charge thirty third all-time within the 50 freestyle. Among American athletes, solely Walsh (22.83), Kate Douglass (23.05) and Abbey Weitzeil (23.44) have been quicker, with Walsh’s time serving because the world file within the 50 free.

As the World Cup prepares to spend three days within the Chicago suburb of Westmont, there’s little doubt Walsh will probably be a headliner and will additional rewrite the short-course file e-book.