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
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.
Absolutely wonderful and amazing!!! This gal is gonna smash the WR.
That is super fast time for a woman who gave birth last August. Even if GW breaks the WR, SS will get it back.
I was with you until that second line
24.51 is ridiculous. And 25.0 from Sarah is also incredible given she had a baby last year!
I know she’s probably dialed in like a robot in these butterfly races at this point, but I’m never not amazed how she’s able to surface at exactly 15 meters.
Gretchen is nuts but Sjostrom 25.05 is also unbelievable. Less than a year after having a kid and she puts up a time that ties the 3rd fastest woman ever (Zhang Yufei). what a legend
Yup, and for someone in that kinda circumstance you’d expect to fade in a race due to “lack of conditioning” (which I think is a myth), but instead she had an extraordinary last 15 meters.
This.