Walsh Within 0.06 Of Spitz At His Best, Her Best 100 'Fly A 4th Career WR Of 54.33
On 25.09 at the turn, the Virginia ace was travelling at a speed that only Swedish ace Sarah Sjöstrom (24.43 WR) Walsh herself, China's Zhang Yufei and the model of sprinting Sjöstrom aspired to in Sweden, Therese Alshammar, have ever swum faster than in a pure 50m race
Gretchen Walsh is now just 0.06sec slower over 100m butterfly than Mark Spitz was when he claimed one of his record seven Olympic golds at Munich 1972.
- His time: 54.27 WR 31 August 1972
- Her time: 54.33 WR 02 May 2026
It unfolded on the last day of the Fort Lauderdale Open in Florida and marked Walsh's fourth career World record in the women's 100m butterfly since she took down Sarah Sjostrom's 55.48 with a 55.18 at U.S. Olympic trials in June 2024 on her way to Olympic silver in Paris that summer behind USA teammate Torri Huske.
Since then, Walsh, coached by Todd DeSorbo at the University of Virginia, has been unbeaten in major and minor moments, her 54.33 a major moment in a minor moment. Here's how it unfolded:
- 25.09; 29.24.
That opening 50 is crushing: just 0.01sec slower than the time in which Waklsh won the 50m on Friday, it is topped only on the all-time ranks by Swedish ace Sjostrom (WR 24.43 from a staggering swim at Bōras back in 2014), Walsh herself, China's Zhang Yufei and the model of sprinting Sjöstrom had to aspire to in Sweden, Therese Alshammar. No other swimmers have ever swum a faster butterfly dash time that Walsh's split!
If the first half of her 100 broke the mould, the second half delivered her fastest-ever return to a career high... and compares to these swims
- 54.60 - 25.32; 29.28 - Walsh - Fort Lauderdale - May 3, 2025
- 55.09 - 25.54; 29.55 - Walsh - Fort Lauderdale - May 3, 2025
- 55.18 - 25.45; 29.73 - Walsh - Indianapolis - June 15, 2024
- 55.48 - 26.01; 29.47 - Sjöstrom - Rio - August 7, 2016 - Olympic Gold
Maybe it's something about the venue, or time of year... Walsh has set the last three of her world records there and now has one global mark in the event fewer than Sjostrom in a period of less than two years, the Swedish sprinter's five moments of pioneering speed having unfolded over seven years.
Commentary
Fantastic swimming from Gretchen Walsh - and many others at the Fort Lauderdale Open, where many are at different stages of preparation, where world records don't bring big bonus cheques, where the sport continues to flow in its long-established way without any efforts from global regulators to change the game in the valleys between Olympic Heights. Great for Walsh and others, like Cam McEvoy at the China Open, but in general, their efforts don't create a swimming economy beyond any benefit that might (and its a big might) come directly to the individual swimmer who achieves a phenomenal result when the lights of the wider world are off. We take up that theme in our latest SOS FORUM:
Craig Lord
The History Walsh Weaves Into
If Spitz's time is a fascinating measure of women's progress in the pool, then his equivalent 100 'fly champion at Munich 1972, Japan's Mayumi Aoki, took the women's title in 1:03.34.
A quarter of a century later, the mark still stood at the 57.93 clocked by Mary T. Meagher in 1981 as the second of her two records that form part of her record 19-years-five-months reign as global pacesetter.
Walsh is also now 2.28sec faster than the pace of Inge de Bruijn's Sydney 2000 Olympic gold, a quarter of a century on. In the same period leading up to the Dutch sprinter's time at the top, the World record improved from 1:01.33, set by Kornelia Ender in 1975. That swim was part of the steepest progress ever seen in the event in just a few years: Aoki's 1:03.34 was overtaken by Ender in 1973, which sparked one of the most staggering rates of progression ever seen in swimming, as a result of the GDR's systematic doping program.
Four GDR women, in 11 swims (Ender, 6; Rosemarie Kother-Gabriel, 3; Christiane Knacke, 1; Andrea Pollack, 1) , took the standard down from 1:03.05 to 59.46 April 1973 to July 1978, Vvia the first sub-minute, from Knacke, in August 1977:
The near-vertical drop to the GDR's dominance of the women's swimming events at the Montreal 1976 Olympics is particularly dramatic. All 11 records in just over five years, all top swimmers from one nation, the gain on the clock 3.59sec.
That story is a part of a tragedy that neither the IOC nor FINA/World Aquatics has done anything about when it comes to justice and healing the harms than unfolded on their watch:
"A Stasi officer's final report on the Games contains a none-too-subtle reference to the drug program under the subheading, "Destruction of the Rest of the Special Medicine. About 10 suitcases of medical packaging, needles, tubular instruments, etc. were sunk in the St. Lawrence River.":
Craig Lord
Meanwhile, Walsh now owns the 13 swiftest women's 100 'fly times in history, two of them clocked this day in heats and finals in Florida a day shy of a year since Walsh's previous World mark in the same pool:
In other action at the Fort Lauderdale Open:
Craig Lord
And ... In Other News:
Craig Lord
