Walsh 23.91, Huske 23.98, Douglass 24.04 Deliver Dashing End To U.S. Nationals
Terrific as those two sub-24s are - the 2nd time in history that two sprinters in domestic waters have raced below 24 in a domestic race - here's the drop: Sarah Sjöström has swum 23.91 fives times - and gone faster 21 times
On the one hand, the freestyle dash events, with Gretchen Walsh on 23.91, a match of Virginia teammate Kate Douglass' American record, Torri Huske on 23.98 and Douglass on 24.04, and then Jack Alexy on 21.39 for the men's crown, provided the curtain-closing thrill at U.S. Championships.
On the other, Katie Ledecky racing 15:36.76, some 2sec per 100m off her World-record pace, in the 1500m freestyle to register yet another time faster than any other woman has ever swum, by 2sec, to make her swiftest 23 performances (thank you World Aquatics for tweaking the ranks code to make sure 'CLB' does not cancel out country code, following our NB yesterday) since 2013 the world's fastest 23 efforts ever, takes some beating, despite the calmness and ordinariness of it all in the context of the 28-year-old legend 13 years past the first of her Olympic golds.
Terrific as those two sub-24s are - the second time in history that two sprinters in domestic waters have raced below 24 in the same final, after Australians Emma McKeown and Cate Campbell pioneered it in 2021 - and fine as that 24.04 is as it delivered a U.S. podium the world-ranks top 3 for 2025, here's the drop: Sarah Sjöström, Sweden's Paris 2024 double sprint freestyle champion, has matched that 23.91 five times and has the bettered the mark a further 21 times.
She and Denmark's Olympic champion of 2016, with that one swim in Rio, grant ownership of the best 11 freestyle dashes ever to Scandinavia, Britta Steffen's shiny suited mark from 2009 still in there at No2 performer and No8 performance behind Sjöström's best 7.
Rare to find American swimming history and pioneering pace in home waters registering a match of the swim ranked 33rd fastest all-time performance, as the 8th swiftest performer ever, but there it is:
Walsh's win gave her a third solo title, after wins in the 50 and 100m butterfly, while Huske added silver to her 100m free gold and bronze in the 200m free. For Douglass, bronze in the free dahs cut the American record holder - now joint - out of the event at World titles at the end of a week in which she claimed the 100-200m breaststroke double.
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