Alex Walsh on the Lessons She Learned in Omaha and Hopes to Take to Tokyo

Alex Walsh, a rising sophomore at the University of Virginia, held a press conference last week in her hometown of Nashville in conjunction with the Nashville Aquatic Club that she trained at as an age grouper.

The interviews came after Walsh, a member of the USA Swimming National Team, qualified for her first Olympic Team after winning the 200 IM in Omaha.

She swam a new best time of 2:08.87 in the semi-finals that makes her the 19th-best performer in history. She wound up swimming slower, 2:09.30, in the final to win by .02 seconds, with just .04 seconds separating her from the third-place finisher Madisyn Cox – the narrowest Olympic Trials margin in the history of the event.

While the moment was the biggest success of her career so far, Walsh says that she was still learning throughout the meet.

“This last week has been really emotional, with the highs and lows of ‘I just made the team’ and then my sister didn’t make the team and that was really hard to deal with,” Walsh said.

Her younger sister, Gretchen Walsh, finished 12th in the semi-finals of the women’s 100 fly before bouncing back for a 7th-place finish in the 50 free later in the meet.

“But then also I’ve seen other swimmers who were…going in they had such high expectations; they didn’t meet those expectations, but then they came back at the end of the meet,” Alex Walsh continued. “Like Simone Manuel, for example. She just missed making the semi-final (in the 100 free) and then made the Olympics in the 50. And even my sister, who didn’t do as well. and then she made the final in the 50. I want to kind of take that and if I don’t perform as well as I wanted to, still give myself an opportunity to be better and do something good.”

“I think seeing people coming back from failures in such a short turnaround like that has really honestly inspired me and showed me that one performance doesn’t just impact everything, so I want to take that lesson and bring it to Tokyo.”

Alex Walsh also reflected on a moment where her father, Robert Walsh, helped her refocus before the semifinals.

“I was really nervous for semi-finals, honestly more than I was for the finals, and I remember I was in my room and I was really upset and my dad came in.

“He was like ‘this is your race, you do this all the time, you’re so good at this, just go out there and just leave it in the pool. It’s only semis, all you have to do is final.’

“So that made me feel a lot more confident and obviously yeah I just wanted to put myself in a good position for the final and so I think getting the best time, I was really happy with that, and then putting myself as the top seed made my confidence go up a lot and really my approach going into the finals was like, I just have to go fast from the get-go and just leave it in the pool. And I think I did that. It hurt really badly at the end.”

Watch the full interview with Alex Walsh and her parents below:

 

 

 

In This Story

31
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

31 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Austinpoolboy
3 years ago

Her mom’s so geeked the smile is going to explode

Stewie
3 years ago

You knew she was going to #sendit

Chris
3 years ago

She’s beautiful and well spoken. I’m so excited for her and Kate. They will represent us well.

Samesame
Reply to  Chris
3 years ago

There’s been a few comments about female members of the team being beautiful over the last few days. Not sure if it was you every time to be fair, but can we keep comments about a person’s looks off this site. It’s completely unnecesssary and irrelevant, even if you think you are being nice. They are sports people.

Hswimmer
Reply to  Samesame
3 years ago

Okay so it’s not okay to call someone beautiful or give compliments anymore? Want it to be something negative?….

Samesame
Reply to  Hswimmer
3 years ago

Just do not comment on looks. Pretty simple.

Hswimmer
Reply to  Samesame
3 years ago

Says who?

Alex Dragovich
Reply to  Hswimmer
3 years ago

How shocking that the same people taking issue with a black woman’s podium protest also take issue with being told not to comment on a woman’s looks.

Hswimmer
Reply to  Alex Dragovich
3 years ago

😂😂

HJones
Reply to  Samesame
3 years ago

Yet its fine when everyone on this site (presumably some female commenters) drool over the male swimmers they find attractive and hunky–like Dressel, Seliskar, and Murphy? What people have said about Walsh to compliment about her looks are tame compared to some of the things I saw during OTs about members of the men’s team.

For the record, I don’t have an issue with either cases. Just pointing out the hypocrisy. Btw, from contacts on the UVA team, I hear she has a boyfriend. So sorry, y’all are out of luck.

Last edited 3 years ago by HJones
Troyy
Reply to  HJones
3 years ago

I’m not female 👀

MTK
Reply to  Samesame
3 years ago

As long as it doesn’t go into the territory of being creepy/objectifying I don’t see the issue. She’s a very talented athlete who also happens to be a knockout in the looks department, don’t see an issue with saying that.

Awsi Dooger
Reply to  Chris
3 years ago

It always strikes me that some of the female swimmers I would recognize without their caps and in street clothes, while others I would have no clue. Alex Walsh would be in the no clue category. She looks like a model and sounds like a spokesperson. If that’s bad I’m willing to be bad

Penguin
Reply to  Awsi Dooger
3 years ago

Maybe hold back with the teenagers? Just an idea.

Andy
Reply to  Chris
3 years ago

Well-spoken? Every other word she says is “like”.

Alan
Reply to  Chris
3 years ago

She should not be commenting about specific swimmers by name (other than perhaps her sister) who did not meet high expectations at Trials. Really bad rookie form.

swimapologist
Reply to  Alan
3 years ago

Yeah dood. Can’t wait until they get her into camp and put her through “media training” to teach her how to stop saying anything interesting at all like the rest of our Olympic stars! Then she’ll be a real pro!

[/sarcasm]

swimmer3
Reply to  Alan
3 years ago

She did not mention anyone else in that aspect besides her sister (and praising Simone Manuel.) please don’t be so critical.

VA Steve
Reply to  Chris
3 years ago

Charisma is a better word that can be applied to all swimmers (and Olympians). It is certainly what advertisers will look for.

Wave 1.5 Qualifier
3 years ago

With all the craziness over that Trials week, and even with how bummed I was for Cox, Walsh / Douglass reppin’ us in the 200 IM seems right. They were getting the versatility headlines all NCAA season long. If those two were going to each qualify for just 1 event for the Olympics, 200 IM was the appropriate one.

Awsi Dooger
Reply to  Wave 1.5 Qualifier
3 years ago

When there were promising youngsters in the event I admittedly played the villain by rooting against all the marginal veterans, including Margalis and Cox. The only two who really annoyed me were Litherland sneaking through and also Schmitt. BTW, the same strategy worked wonderfully in the track and field trials. One elite newcomer after another advanced including a high school kid in the men’s 200

Wave 1.5 Qualifier
Reply to  Wave 1.5 Qualifier
3 years ago

This comment of mine went from 11+ / 1- all the way to 14+ / 18- … looks like I triggered someone. LOL

Jimmy
3 years ago

I have now heard a few times people saying that the US trials are more competitive than the Olympics. Anyone knows why? Are they just exaggerating?

Last edited 3 years ago by Jimmy
The unoriginal Tim
Reply to  Braden Keith
3 years ago

It is fair to say that it is the most competitve trials meet by a significant margin. Especially as there are no wildcards to be handed. There is the odd event that might have a third place finisher who has Olympic medal potential but that is the same in Austrailia in some events.

Yabo
Reply to  Braden Keith
3 years ago

And by “tougher” I think they just mean more mentally draining than the Olympics. Obviously the Olympics is actually more competitive

Spectatorn
Reply to  Jimmy
3 years ago

Probably mentally if the goal is to make the team – so best time doesn’t matter if not either being first or second.
Also, a swimmer may qualified to swim a few events and that added to the decision or burden of which event to focus on and which one to give up.

RMS
Reply to  Jimmy
3 years ago

Many times the 3rd place finisher at US trials could’ve won a medal at the Olympics.

Smith-King-Huske-Manuel
Reply to  Jimmy
3 years ago

It’s the stress of not qualifying for the Summer Olympics that is mentally draining.

Ga swimmer
3 years ago

Shes so badddd😋😋

GA swimmer
Reply to  Ga swimmer
3 years ago

on brand georgia swimmers

Last edited 3 years ago by GA swimmer

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »