Gretchen Walsh’s storied career at the University of Virginia has come to an end. She is easily one of the all-time greatest college swimmers. But I’m not here to try to compare her to the other greats. Instead, I wanted to take a moment to attempt to visualize her dominance. I’ve written many pieces in the past that try to throw some numbers around to show how impressive some swim or series of swims are. But even for me, numbers are just numbers. Let’s take a look at some charts instead!
I’ll go through the three individual titles she won this year, as well as a bonus fourth just for fun.
50 Free
Here is a chart showing every swim in the 50 free that was under 21.74 — of which there have been 520 in history. The x-axis is time. The y-axis has no meaning, it’s just there to separate out multiple swims with the same time.
When we look at top performances, we usually only look at the top 10 or top 25. But I thought it would be more interesting to go back to a full 500. Why? I think it helps to see just how much of an outlier Gretchen Walsh is.
There have only been 30 sub-21s swims in history. 21 of those were Gretchen. Meanwhile, you can see all the 21.4s and 21.5s and 21.6s. Those are still NCAA “A” final-worthy swims! But still very, very far back.
100 Fly
As one-sided as the 50 free looks, the 100 fly is something else entirely:
I mean. What can you even say about this? There have still only been 94 sub-50s swims in the history of the women’s 100 fly. Breaking that barrier is still a very elite swim. 50.01 was still 4th at this year’s meet. And yet, Gretchen Walsh has is now more than *three seconds* under that barrier, a full 1.49s ahead of the second-fastest woman ever.
100 Free
The 100 free isn’t quite as dominant for her as the 100 fly, but at this point, it can feel like splitting hairs:
There have been only four women that have broken 46 (with Torri Huske knocking at the door at 46.01). Erika Connolly and Kate Douglass have done it once each, Simone Manuel was the first and did it twice, and Gretchen Walsh has done it 9 times. Gretchen has been 45.5 or better six times, the only one to do it.
4×100 Medley Relay
Now this year, Gretchen Walsh did not swim a 100 back at NCAAs. And she did not swim a 100 breast at NCAAs either (not that anybody expected her too). But she did surprise us earlier this season with a *very* fast time in that event. So that begs the obvious question: what would a 4xGretchen medley relay look like — given that she has the fastest time ever in three of the four strokes? And, importantly, how does that compare to everyone else?
This is a difficult question to get reliable data for, but as best as I’ve been able to ascertain, the top 20 looks something like this:
| Rank | Name | Fly | Back | Breast | Free | Total |
| 1 | Gretchen Walsh | 46.97 | 48.10 | 56.86 | 44.71 | 3:16.64 |
| 2 | Kate Douglass | 48.46 | 50.47 | 58.14 | 45.86 | 3:22.93 |
| 3 | Alex Walsh | 50.00 | 50.88 | 56.49 | 48.56 | 3:25.93 |
| 4 | Natalie Coughlin | 50.01 | 49.97 | 1:00.29 | 46.84 | 3:27.11 |
| 5 | Torri Huske | 48.52 | 52.45 | 1:00.74 | 46.01 | 3:27.72 |
| 6 | Maggie MacNeil | 48.51 | 49.76 | 1:04.27 | 46.02 | 3:28.56 |
| 7 | Isabel Ivey | 50.60 | 50.40 | 1:00.99 | 46.61 | 3:28.60 |
| 8 | Kathleen Baker | 51.85 | 49.80 | 59.37 | 48.20 | 3:29.22 |
| 9 | Beata Nelson | 50.65 | 49.18 | 1:03.62 | 47.51 | 3:30.96 |
| 10 | Abbey Weitzeil | 52.71 | 51.66 | 1:00.43 | 46.29 | 3:31.09 |
| 11 | Teagan O’Dell | 51.99 | 50.70 | 1:00.68 | 47.74 | 3:31.11 |
| 12 | Katharine Berkoff | 53.81 | 48.55 | 1:02.72 | 46.23 | 3:31.31 |
| 13 | Phoebe Bacon | 51.75 | 50.00 | 1:00.39 | 49.28 | 3:31.42 |
| 14 | Bella Sims | 51.52 | 48.97 | 1:04.12 | 47.01 | 3:31.62 |
| 15 | Summer McIntosh | 51.10 | 51.35 | 1:01.40 | 47.88 | 3:31.73 |
| 16 | Charlotte Crush | 50.00 | 49.46 | 1:04.50 | 47.85 | 3:31.81 |
| 17 | Louise Hansson | 49.26 | 50.74 | 1:05.15 | 47.03 | 3:32.18 |
| 18 | Josephine Fuller | 51.51 | 50.05 | 1:01.72 | 49.16 | 3:32.44 |
| 19 | Isabelle Stadden | 52.11 | 50.26 | 1:01.35 | 48.87 | 3:32.59 |
| 20 | Calypso Sheridan | 52.10 | 51.31 | 1:00.00 | 49.25 | 3:32.66 |
Gretchen Walsh is a full SIX seconds ahead of Kate Douglass, who is another full three seconds ahead of Alex Walsh. And then have to go another full second back to get to the first non-Virginia swimmer, Natalie Coughlin.
Notably, Virginia’s record in the 4×100 medley relay itself (on which Gretchen could only swim one leg) is 3:19.58.
While I’m on this list, there’s a few interesting tidbits to throw out. Now, apparently most swimmers do not prioritize making it onto this list. This was a shock to me as well. Let Bella sprint breaststroke! So, for instance, Claire Curzan would be 4th if we just considered fly (49.0), back (49.1), and free (46.7) — but her best time in the 100 breast is apparently just 1:12.07, which hurts her in the overall standings. But even a 1:05.07 would get her to a 3:29.04 which easily makes the top 20. Similarly, Regan Smith is 9th on the fly (49.8)/back (49.1)/free (48.0) list, with just a 1:10.27 for the breaststroke. Jasmine Nocentini is likewise 4th on the list if we only consider back (53.6), breast (56.0), and free (46.7) — but has no recorded time in the 100 fly that I can find. A 55.0 gets her to 3:31.45.
Conclusion
Gretchen Walsh has been about as good over these last few years as it is possible to conceive of somebody being in this sport. While it’s tempting to try to compare her to Coughlin or Caeleb Dressel or Leon Marchand — and boy is it tempting — I wanted to instead sit back and bask in her glory. We don’t know when we’ll see another Gretchen Walsh, so let’s enjoy the time we had.
Those numbers will tarnish McIntosh’s legacy.
She needs to put on a stern face and get out of the snow.
I says pardon?
U what mate???😂😭 She is literally not American, is not doing college and does not sprint😭. I shouldn’t even be responding to something so ridiculous😭
I’m not sure we’ll ever see breakout dominance as the likes of Coughlin, Gretchen, Dressel, or Marchand like this again… The commonality was they all had next level underwater skills. Now that everyone is going to have these skills… What will allow people to be miles ahead?
It’s not like this is a new revelation in swimming. Coughlin graduated from college 20 years ago. There will continue to be outliers.
The opportunity for outliers is dwindling
Yup, just like they said after Spitz … in 1972!
Brainchips
Madness
It will be exciting to watch how Gretchen, Alex, Kate Douglass, and the UVA swimmers compete in LCM this summer!
I wish for a wr in the 50 fly, 200 im and 200 br
I’m surprised that, even though she swam NCAA, Siobhan Haughey is missing times in all but the 100 yard free on swimcloud. I assumed her exclusion was an oversight, but I guess not.
1.49 seconds faster than the next fastest person just blows my mind. How much faster was Coughlin’s 100 back than the next fastest when she broke 50?
Others had been in the 52s but when she went 49.99, Susan Woesner (yes, that one) was second in 53.2.
Also, the winning 400 medley relay time in 2002, was 3:31.7, so Coughlin would have won that by 4 seconds (with her 100 times).
If you could do this for Tracy Caulkins, she would be similar to Gretchen. ARs in 100 free, 100 breast, 200 back, and of course WR in 200 LC fly, made the 1980 Olympic Team in 100 fly. Etc.
Here’s my best attempt to answer this. USAS’s data when you go back far enough isn’t super complete so I’m not completely sure. Going back year by year, between looking at what USAS gives me for top times in a season and NCAA results that we have posted on here (under our results archive):
- In 2002 when Coughlin went 49.97, the second fastest time was 52.30**, and 2nd place at NCAAs was 53.23. That 52.30 is from a Karol Ciechanowski, which sounds like a man’s name, and doesn’t appear on the NCAA women’s results from that year — so I’m skeptical of it.
- In 2001, she lowered the record from her own 51.66 to 51.23 at NCAAs, 2nd place
… Read more »Wow!!
Also, thank you for doing all that research!
Definitely impressed and think of her as the best women’s swimmer of all time. Especially after SC Worlds performance. Mind boggling. People talk about many other dominant women but I can’t think of any that can span that many different strokes/events and still be absolutely dominant. Similar to Phelps when compared to other greats but the difference for him as well was the dominance and elite level of performance over so many strokes/distances. Puts these types of swimmers on a different level than say a Ledecky who is dominant over time and in her specific races but could never compete in anything outside distance free.
Lol
Gretchen is great without a doubt, but her apparent versatility depends greatly on the fact that she is by far the greatest woman at turns and underwater dolphin kicks. She is also very elite in the sprint fly stroke, as shown by her performances in long-course fly sprints, but she is not dominant in any of the other strokes.
Again, Gretchen is great, but other swimmers have been more dominant in a variety of events (Katinka Hosszu comes to mind). And Ledecky’s dominance over a huge range of distances shows a whole different kind of versatility.
You woke up today and made the choice to use Beyoncé’s internet for this. I love a messy queen.
She might not be top 10 greatest women’s swimmer all time. Definitely top 3 greatest SCY women swimmer. I’d say Coughlin first, toss up GW and Tracy Caulkins second/third, KD 4th. Time will tell if GW records hold as long as those two.
Ya she’s definitely the best female swimmer of all time, especially after all those individual gold medals she won in Paris…
Really fun data in a great article. I have to believe that Tracy Caukins would be on this list if she were swimming with today’s suits, technology, and rules that make swimming faster.
Caukins had greater versatility because the 4 strokes were more distinctly different at that time than they are now. FL, BK and FR are now almost 60% the same stroke (scy) and, in Br you couldn’t even let your head go below the surface of the water in Caukins day.