Florida vs. Virginia
- October 18, 2024
- Charlottesville, Virginia
- 25 Meters (SCM)
- Results on Meet Mobile: “Virginia vs Florida”
- Full Meet Recap
After setting three American Records during the first hour of racing during Virginia’s short course meter dual meet with Florida, Gretchen Walsh was far from done.
Competing in a 100 IM time trial, Walsh rocketed to a time of 55.98, demolishing the world record of 56.51 set by Katinka Hosszu back in 2017.
Walsh is the first swimmer in history under 56 seconds, and breaks the hours-old American Record of 56.99 set by Kate Douglass earlier on Friday at the Shanghai stop of the World Cup.
It’s obvious Walsh is a better fly/back sprinter than Hosszu and Douglass when comparing their splits, as Walsh was nine-tenths clear of Hosszu at the 50 with a scintillating opening of 25.07, while she was nearly two seconds head of Douglass.
Douglass came back faster than anyone, leaning on her breaststroke prowess, but the gap created by Walsh on the opening 50 was enough to put her more than half a second clear of the world record and over a second clear of the American Record.
Split Comparison
| Hosszu, Old WR | Douglass, Old AR | Walsh, New WR |
| 25.97 | 26.96 | 25.07 |
| 56.51 (30.54) | 56.99 (30.03) | 55.98 (30.91) |
All-Time Performers, Women’s 100 IM (SCM)
- Gretchen Walsh, USA – 55.98
- Katinka Hosszu, Hungary – 56.51
- Kate Douglass, USA – 56.99
- Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden – 57.10
- Beryl Gastaldello, France – 57.30
- Charlotte Bonnet, France – 57.47
- (TIE) Alicia Coutts, Australia/Marrit Steenbergen, Netherlands – 57.53
- (TIE) Mariia Kameneva, Russia/Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, Great Britain/Anastasiya Shkurdai, Belarus – 57.59
RACE VIDEO
Earlier this month, Walsh recorded the fourth-fastest 100 IM of all-time in short course yards (52.63), with Douglass owning the fastest time ever at 51.97.
If Walsh’s swim is ratified and recognized by World Aquatics, it will qualify her to swim the 100 IM at the Short Course World Championships, which she’s scheduled to contest in December.
Douglass is also expected to race the 100 IM after registering an official time on Friday in Shanghai.
When the U.S. announced its roster for the championships last week, there were no entrants in the 100 IM as no one had posted a qualifying time. Assuming it’s Walsh and Douglass representing the U.S. in the event in Budapest, the Americans will more than likely be looking at a 1-2 finish.
Earlier in the dual meet with Florida, Walsh set American Records in the 50 free (23.10), 50 back (25.37) and 100 back (54.89), ranking t-4th, 3rd and t-2nd all-time.
In a single afternoon, she did some serious damage on the SCM record books with more to come later this year in Budapest.
| Event | WR (Pre-UVA/FLORIDA) | AR (Pre-UVA/FLORIDA) | Walsh @ UVA/FLORIDA |
| 50 free | 22.93 (Kromowidjojo) | 23.44 (Weitzeil) | 23.10 |
| 50 back | 25.25 (MacNeil) | 25.54 (Curzan) | 25.37 |
| 100 back | 54.56 (McKeown) | 55.04 (Smoliga) | 54.89 |
| 100 IM | 56.51 (Hosszu) | 56.99 (Douglass) | 55.98 |
According to USA Swimming’s database, Walsh has never raced SCM in an official meet until today.
Shall we be honest?
1. The NCAA’s refusal to transition from SCY to SCMs is costing college swimmers a lot of fame, publicity and straight up cash in both NIL revenue possibilities, and prize money.
Could this be intentional?
2. The dive can be followed by 15m underwater, but if we want to retain the strokes, after the turns there should be no more than 10m underwater (except breastroke, where the rules should stay as is).
I think it would be cool for the US to have a SCM US Open meet or similar and maybe make an effort to host some World Cup meets so that our best swimmers can get some more international recognition and world records. But honestly, the NCAA system is locked in, for the simple reason that most pools in the US are SCY, including the vast majority of college programs.
I think the decision to not transition to SCM has more to do with the cost that would be involved with building SCM pools at every college in the country. Most do not have pools with bulkheads that could be moved, so in most cases it would be several million dollars to transition or you would just have a lot of schools that didn’t do it, resulting in most meets still being swum in yards. Given the state of the sport, many teams would be cut if this transition were imposed.
I do like the idea. In the long run, it could mean world records being broken at NCAAs. This may attract non-swimming fans and grow the sport, but… Read more »
How many teams that are scoring at D1s only have a SCY pool? I bet it is zero.
D2 and D3 have no reason to change.
What are considered the best single session performances of all time, for women?
This is up there but obviously she has already done crazy stuff in SCY but that isn’t recognised the same way outside the US.
Missy franklins 2 free + 1back double in London comes to mind
When’s the last time any world record was broken at a meet this low level? I’m thinking maybe Ledecky’s 800 free at the woodlands senior invite in 2014, or is there something more recent?
Kaylee 200 back
When Hosszu was wreaking havoc she would beat records left and right both at world cups and national short course championships.
So…. It counts!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBSZM05ixk5/?igsh=MXJyc2lzNGRjOGM1Zw==
I hope you are right but mentioning the time on Instagram is not yet official ratification of the title.
As dysfunction as that organization is, why would WA risk the embarrassment of posting a world record on Instagram only to not ratify it later?
Because they’re dysfunctional
Love the SCY/SCM formats and think they’re generally the most exciting races for viewers – with that said would like to see the NCAA experiment with moving D1 NCAA Champs to LCM for the next 4 years.
Would be interesting to see if forcing all D1 programs, that are vying for top 25 finishes, to prioritize training LCM consistently could have a significant impact on Team USA’s performance in 2028.
Again, personally love SCY’s and think it’s a great training tool for LCM, but would be fun to see if shifting the ‘measuring stick’ at a collegiate level would have an impact on LCM development at a national level. Definitely no equitable way to make this happen, but… Read more »
Folks! Guess what? That silver medal is going to get us some CRAZY swimming from GW. She is HUNGRY and abs I don’t feel comfortable doubting her in anything tbh.
honestly i don’t think this has much to do with the silver medal, she’d be swimming like this even if she’d won gold imo
Yes, she’d absolutely be swimming fast but imo the silver pushes her a little more. Go back to when the mixed medley won gold. She was delirious with joy in a way that seemed different.
I swear, I could just Rowdy off in the distance, faintly complaining about her reaction time.
Oh hey, she’s pretty fast.