Source: Yahoo Sports

On March 20, the Women’s D1 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships began [1]. While there have been incredible swims from many different swimmers over the past months, one swimmer has had exceptional performances time and time again: Gretchen Walsh.

Gretchen Walsh was born on January 29, 2003 in Nashville Tennessee. She started off her swimming career by joining a club team and later swimming on her high school team. Within these years, Gretchen was able to accomplish many things [2]. Starting off strong, at just 13 years old Walsh qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2016 [6]. At 15 years old, she swam the 50 yard freestyle in a time of 21.85, making her the youngest female to go under 22 seconds. This time additionally broke the 15-16 year old National Age Group record. Another event demonstrating her great success was the 100 yard freestyle. In 2019, she broke the National Age Group record in this event with a time of 47.49. Incredible swims like these all aided in her qualification for more elite meets such as Junior Pan Pacific Championships (2018) and eventually, the World Junior Championships (2019). Although she had many individual successes, she also helped Team USA win golds in multiple relays at each of these meets. In terms of high school swimming, she achieved two national high school records at the TISCA State Championships in 2020 [3]. She later went on to compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials again in 2021.

Her journey in college swimming began in 2020, where as one of the top recruits of her class, Walsh committed to University of Virginia (UVA) in her junior year of high school. There, not only was she able to accomplish great things, but she would also be swimming with her sister Alex Walsh [3, 1]. During her freshman year, she won the 100 freestyle at NCAA Championships, along with helping set American and NCAA records in various relays [4]. However, she missed qualifying for the 2022 World Championship Team in the 50 meter free by .01 seconds [6]. In her sophomore year, she won both the 100 back and 100 free. She later qualified for her first World Championships in the 100 meter free and 50 meter fly. There she went on to get a bronze medal in the 50 meter fly and helped the team get a silver in the 400 meter freestyle relay [3,4]. This year, Gretchen continued to accomplish unbelievable times. At ACC Championships, Gretchen became the first woman to go sub-20 seconds in the 50 yard freestyle with a relay split of 19.95 [5]. At NCAAs this year, Walsh won all three of her individual events (50 Free, 100 Free, and 100 Fly) and broke records in each one [7]. While the college season may be over, Gretchen Walsh now has the chance to focus on Olympic Trials this summer [6].

At such a young age, Walsh has time and time again demonstrated that commitment and persistence brings results – regardless of the number of records and awards she holds, Gretchen empowers a new generation of female swimmers. 

Sources:

[1] https://www.ncaa.com/news/swimming-women/article/2024-03-23/virginia-wins-2024-ncaa-di-womens-swimming-diving-championships#:~:text=The%202024%20championships%20are%20set,and%20a%20list%20of%20alternates 

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretchen_Walsh 

[3] https://swimswam.com/bio/gretchen-walsh/ 

[4] https://virginiasports.com/player/gretchen-walsh/ 

[5] https://www.si.com/college/virginia/all-sports/gretchen-walsh-makes-history-in-50-free-on-day-two-of-acc-championships 

[6] https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/gretchen-walsh-swimming-ncaa-championships 

[7] https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2024/03/womens-swimming-and-diving-claims-its-fourth-consecutive-ncaa-championship?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured