Gretchen Walsh sets Olympic record in 100m butterfly – NBC4 Washington

Team USA’s Gretchen Walsh broke the Olympic record in the women’s 100m butterfly semifinals with a time of 55.38 seconds. Walsh challenged her own world record time of 55.18.

Fellow American Torri Huske posted the second-best semifinal time of 56.0.

The 100m butterfly final will take place on Sunday at 2:40 p.m. ET.

Walsh attends the University of Virginia, where she dominates at the NCAA level. This year alone, she won seven NCAA titles to help lead UVA to a fourth consecutive women’s swimming national championship. This past season she also set America, U.S. Open and NCAA records in the 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly and the 100m freestyle. 

Walsh has been swimming since she was young, but she first garnered nationwide attention when she qualified for a national junior’s competition in 2015 at age 12. One year later in 2016, she became the youngest swimmer to ever compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials. 

It’s also a family affair in Paris as Gretchen her sister, Alex, are both competing for Team USA.

Learn more about Gretchen here.

Making it to the Olympics on the Team USA swim team is one of the most challenging achievements in the world, so Gretchen and Alex Walsh are glad they have each other every step of the way.