67th SETTE COLLI TROPHY
- Friday, June 26th – Sunday, June 28th
- Prelims at 9am local (3am ET)/A-Finals at 7pm local (1pm ET)
- Foro Italico, Rome, Italy
- Meet Central
- Entry List
- Live Results
- Finals Livestream
- Day 1 Prelims Recap
- Day 1 Finals Live Recap
Towards the end of the first night of finals at the 2026 Sette Colli Trophy, Gretchen Walsh threw down an American Record en route to dominating the women’s 50m butterfly final in the second-fastest time in event history.
The 23-year-old clocked 24.51 to get the win ahead of world record holder Sarah Sjostrom (25.05) of Sweden and Roos Vanotterdijk (25.87) of Belgium.
Race Video
Walsh’s former American Record was the 24.66 she produced to win the 2025 U.S. World Championship Trials, a time that ranked as the fourth-fastest swim in history prior to tonight. She is the reigning world champion in both sprint fly events and the 2024 Olympic silver medalist in the 100 fly, an event in which she holds the world record and stands alone at the top of the all-time list by more than a full second.
The 32-year-old Sjostrom, a six-time world champion in the event between 2015 and 2024, still owns the world record at 24.43, a time she set in the summer of 2014. Aside from that world-record swim, she has never been under 24.6, though she owns eight of the 10 fastest performances in history, with Walsh holding the No. 2 and No. 5 spots all-time.
Tonight’s swim was the 29th sub-25-second performance in history, with Walsh now owning five such swims compared to Sjostrom’s mind-bending 24. The duo remain the only two swimmers to ever crack the 25-second barrier.
Sjostrom’s silver medal-worthy time tonight is certainly not to be glossed over. It is her fastest since returning to competition, a comeback best by a few tenths, following the 25.31 she swam in prelims this morning in her first time racing the event since giving birth to her son Adrian in late August.
Elsewhere in the session, Walsh’s training partner at the University of Virginia, Italian Sara Curtis, threw down a European Record of 27.07 in the 50m backstroke. The Cavaliers have been on fire all season; most notably, Kate Douglass broke the world record in the 50 free (23.59) last week with Walsh (23.78) posting a massive personal best behind her, Anna Moesch clocked an American Record of 51.94 in the 100 free in London just over a month ago, and Isabelle Stadden has been on a tear with times of 27.14, 57.55, and 2:04.37 across all three backstroke events.
Walsh’s swim tonight marks the Virginia program’s 99th American Record across all courses in the past five years, with a strong chance of hitting 100 not only this summer, but potentially this weekend.
- Related From May 2025: How Many? Taking a Look at Virginia’s Recent American Record Blitz
Clash of the titans. Incredible!
Only a matter of time before the wind-assisted current record goes away forever.
I think that’s really distasteful to be spiteful of the greatest female sprinter in history… Sarah is so sweet and humble and 24 was CERTAINLY not a fluke for the 6 time 50 fly world champ…
Maybe he has not watched the videos from the race and just regurgitates what some others have said. Buildings and structures do block wind.
Bathub swimmer
It was only funny for the first 50 times.
100 times?
25 times?
Name checks out
Seriously? Have you been living in a bathtub? BTW, did you stop to think what your comment implies about GW’s competitors, which include one of the top five female swimmers of all time?
But was it wind legal
I meannnn sarahs record was on a pretty windy day too..
no shade but like
I looked into this in some detail a few years ago. I collected historical weather data from local weather stations, analysed the prevailing wind direction and speed, and compared it with the orientation and location of the swimming pool. Combined with several features that are clearly visible in the race footage, this allowed me to make a reasonably robust assessment of whether Sarah Sjöström’s world record could have been wind-assisted.
One important detail that is often overlooked is that the pool is heavily sheltered by a large building on Sarah’s left-hand side (the camera side). That structure significantly limits the effect of any crosswind reaching the water.
My advice to anyone wishing to debate the subject is straightforward: look at… Read more »
I thought wind / outdoor pools was some kind of joke.
It isn’t?
Oh I think it’s real. Doing a 50 fly directly into a headwind has to slow u down at least a little. A tailwind probably also helps a pinch. The dive if nothing else. Not a huge deal in normal circumstance but if there was ever an event where it matters it’s an elite 50 fly. Hard thing to A/B test tho.
it would be more from semi consistent winds driving surface currents in the water than from the wind directly pushing the swimmer.
even a current of 0.02 m/s would make a swimmer 1% faster and drop 0.25 seconds.
That is true if it is a 0.02m/s for the depth that represents the racing depth (about 1-2 feet depth plus the depth of the starts for the first 15m), if it is only the surface water moving the impact is much smaller
Carl, absolutely about depth. that’s why the wind needs to be consistent enough for the flows to reach something close to a steady-state depth profile. I have no idea if this is the case for the wr swim.
Order of events were Men 50 Free, Women 100 Br, Men 200 back, Women 400 Free, Men 100 Fly, Women 50 Fly so the swimmers are moving the water around enough that the wind do not have time to build up a current other than maybe at the surface (there were awards between every event where any wind (judge by the video showing the parasols by the pool deck).
There is significantly more likely that any possible current would come from a flaw in a pool design so that the water filtration/circulation system would create a current. World Aquatics even how rules with regards to the circulation system because if this.
Was not able to find the video that shows how windy it was at this meet but the backstroke flags to right of Tyler shows some wind, it was apparently a lot windier the day before: Video Interview: Tyler Clary Battled the Elements to Win 200 Fly – Swimming World
Maybe too much work and thinking for some people and it is easier to stick to what you have heard others say. If people watch race video and see how much (or little) the parasols are moving right behind the swimmers right before the start, that will say a lot.
Here’s the race video:
https://youtu.be/fDK5bDWdSzk?is=CqDsKzrusukbMNv3
It’s definitely windy at deck level, but it’s hard to tell if it’s strictly a tailwind. The umbrellas behind the blocks could be getting blown from any direction. The ripples on the water look like they’re going the right way to be favorable, but that could just be from rebound off the wall. There are quick glimpses of the trees and one of those rigid sail-like flags at the far corner, but it’s hard to tell much from them except that it’s gusty.
Wow everyone took this extremely seriously
😂
I dunno what to think anymore. I cannot imagine wind being a factor in a 50m pool event.
If this is a “thing”, then why hasn’t WA said anything about it? (Or did I miss it?)
Was not able to find the video that shows how windy it was at this meet but the backstroke flags to right of Tyler shows some wind, it was apparently a lot windier the day before: Video Interview: Tyler Clary Battled the Elements to Win 200 Fly – Swimming World
I also had a baby last August and swam an 800 in like 20 min today. 😝 Sarah is amazing!
She’s an absolute freak.
If she was from a country that was more relay relevant on female side (Aus or US), she would be in the GOAT female conversation. Which is a shame that we put so much stock in relays.
I don’t consider relay medals at all in GOAT conversation.
That’s great, I don’t either.
But if she was Australian or American she would have atleast 12 extra olympic medals form 2012 on, and realistically close to if not all of them are probably gold (maybe the Aus 100 free relay beats US + Sjostrom).
She’s still the sprinting GOAT imo. Her longevity is amazing
Almost no one has a perfect career, she was supposedly really sick just over a month before the 2012 Olympics, if she had been able to match her times from that March she would have won a couple of medals.
Think she did 1 meet in 2020 before Covid closed things down, and in the winter of 2021 she broke her elbow and needed pins and surgery (she might have had a lot more fast times etc otherwise). She did one 50 fly race in 2021
Walsh, Curtis, Douglass, Moesch, Stadden, Canny…
what is Todd pouring in the UVA water this summer?
and it’s still June
Monster Energy
If Walsh had executed Sjostrom’s finish in that race, it would’ve been a world record. Walsh had such a beautiful middle part of that 50. It was pure elegance and power combined into one.
If Sjostrom had executed the middle part of that 50 as Walsh did, it would have been a world record. And if she also had executed the start better that she did, she would have been even faster.
Bro I was just lauding both women at the same time while pointing out flaws that can be fixed and make both better. You had to go and be all petty.
Feel Walsh has a good stroke, but it is her underwater and breakout that sets her apart. I feel that Walsh had a good finish (not perfect, but good).
It’s her dolphin kick in general. Such a huge weapon.
Absolutely wonderful and amazing!!! This gal is gonna smash the WR.