Gretchen Walsh Throws Down 24.51 American Record In 50m Fly, #2 Swim In World Historical past

67th SETTE COLLI TROPHY 

Towards the tip of the primary evening of finals on the 2026 Sette Colli Trophy, Gretchen Walsh threw down an American Record en path to dominating the ladies’s 50m butterfly closing within the second-fastest time in occasion historical past.

The 23-year-old clocked 24.51 to get the win forward of world file holder Sarah Sjostrom (25.05) of Sweden and Roos Vanotterdijk (25.87) of Belgium.

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Walsh’s former American Record was the 24.66 she produced to win the 2025 U.S. World Championship Trials, a time that ranked because the fourth-fastest swim in historical past previous to tonight. She is the reigning world champion in each dash fly occasions and the 2024 Olympic silver medalist within the 100 fly, an occasion wherein she holds the world file and stands alone on the high of the all-time checklist by greater than a full second.

The 32-year-old Sjostrom, a six-time world champion within the occasion between 2015 and 2024, nonetheless owns the world file at 24.43, a time she set in the summertime of 2014. Aside from that world-record swim, she has by no means been underneath 24.6, although she owns eight of the ten quickest performances in historical past, with Walsh holding the No. 2 and No. 5 spots all-time.

Tonight’s swim was the twenty ninth sub-25-second efficiency in historical past, with Walsh now proudly owning 5 such swims in comparison with Sjostrom’s mind-bending 24. The duo stay the one two swimmers to ever crack the 25-second barrier.

Sjostrom’s silver medal-worthy time tonight is definitely to not be glossed over. It is her quickest since returning to competitors, a comeback greatest by a couple of tenths, following the 25.31 she swam in prelims this morning in her first time racing the occasion since giving beginning to her son Adrian in late August.

Elsewhere within the session, Walsh’s coaching companion on the University of Virginia, Italian Sara Curtis, threw down a European Record of 27.07 within the 50m backstroke. The Cavaliers have been on fireplace all season; most notably, Kate Douglass broke the world file within the 50 free (23.59) final week with Walsh (23.78) posting a large private greatest behind her, Anna Moesch clocked an American Record of 51.94 within the 100 free in London simply over a month in the past, and Isabelle Stadden has been on a tear with instances of 27.14, 57.55, and a pair of:04.37 throughout all three backstroke occasions.

Walsh’s swim tonight marks the Virginia program’s 99th American Record throughout all programs prior to now 5 years, with a powerful likelihood of hitting 100 not solely this summer season, however probably this weekend.