Two-Time Olympian Gabrielle Rose Goes a Personal Best at 46 Years Old, Makes Trials Semis

2024 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

There was an enthusiastic cheer from the 17,697-strong crowd as Gabrielle Rose took to the water. At 46 years old, the two-time Olympian won heat seven with a new personal best of 1:08.43, her first time under 1:09.

Representing Alpha Aquatics, where she also coaches, Rose split 31.70/36.73 to rank 11th this morning. The next oldest qualifier is top seed Lilly King (1:06.05), who was born in 1997.

Rose first broke out with national age group records for 11-12 girls in the 50 and 100 breaststroke. After a self-described plateau as a breaststroker, she turned her focus towards improving in other strokes. Now she’s back on the biggest stage in the U.S., still swimming best times in the event where it all started.

Rose also competes in master’s swimming, where she holds 14 records across the 35-39 and 45-49 age groups.

While it’s difficult to find accurate results in the USA Swimming database prior to 2004, here are a few of Rose’s 100 breast outings throughout the years (as well as some master’s swimming results) to show how impressive her swim today was.

Year Time Meet
1998 1:11.73
1998 US Summer Nationals
2001 1:12.30
Grand Challenge
2002 1:11.02 2002 US Smoc
2016 1:21.46
4th Annual Munster Masters Summer Splash
2022 1:12.34
2022 SPMS and Southwest Zone Summer Championships
2023 1:09.42
2023 CA Southern Pacific Sr Invite (SCY) hosted by TST/GWSC
2024 1:08.43
2024 U.S. Olympic Trials

Rose is a dual citizen of the United States and Brazil. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, representing Brazil, she finished 14th in the 100 butterfly, 22nd in the 200 IM, and 23rd in the 100 free. She later switched her sporting citizenship to the United States and qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 200 IM, where she placed 7th.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Rose also had a successful collegiate career representing Stanford University. She was a 22-time All-American for the Cardinal, graduating in 2000, and later returned for an MBA in 2009.

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MTK
6 months ago

Swims like this make me ever more convinced that we don’t “lose it” as much as people think as we get older. What we lose is more so dedication/commitment, not ability.

Texas Fan
6 months ago

That was AMAZING!

Fluidg
6 months ago

That time is nearly 4 full seconds faster than her current age group WR. It’s also a lot faster than the age group WRs for every other age group including 25-29 and 30-34! Gabby’s 50 split is about 2 seconds faster than the 45-49 50m WR and faster than the current 50 WR in almost every age group. Hands down one of the greatest swims ever for a Masters swimmer, male or female.

ACC fan
6 months ago

I wish more swimmers would stay in it longer!

Boknows34
6 months ago

That is super impressive, Well done.

Ice Age Swimmer
6 months ago

A kick-ass time at any age! Wow!!

Tracy Kosinski
6 months ago

Like a fine wine! Congratulations Gabby 👏

JimSwim22
6 months ago

Such an inspiration