2026 Speedo Fort Lauderdale Open
- Wednesday, April 29 – Saturday, May 2, 2026
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center
- LCM (50 meters)
- All the Links
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results: “Fort Lauderdale Open” on Meet Mobile
- SwimSwam Recaps
Gretchen Walsh 🤝Ft. Lauderdale
A growingly iconic pair, for the second straight year, Gretchen Walsh has broken the World Record in an early May meet in Ft. Lauderdale.
Last year, she did it in both prelims and finals at the Pro Swim Series. This year, she did it in finals at the replacement Ft. Lauderdale Open.
Just like last year, Walsh is breathing basically every stroke for the entire 100 – in contrast to conventional wisdom. Much like Phelps did in butterfly races, and Ledecky did in distance freestyle races (double breathing), Walsh is rewriting the paradigms for what a good swimming habit looks like.
While Coleman was running the livestream, we want to thank the meet hosts for providing us a volunteer to hold the camera for the race videos.
Watch the World Record Swim Here:
Hear from Gretchen After Her Swim:
Second View, from our friends at Social Kick
Announcer Extraordinaire, Kevin Cargill’s View of the Race
View this post on Instagram
Even breathed off the turn. This works bc she’s able to maintain her hips very high even when breathing, and her kick is super strong, keeping her body on top of the water. Incredible swim!
Oxygen is helpful! Who knew!
3 world records in the same pool and same lane in less than a year. Until yesterday the most World records that any one swimmer set in the pool here in Fort Lauderdale was two that Gretchen shared. She stands alone.
I was timing in lane 2, we were joking that she has terrible helicopter mechanics, she was struggling with her arms the last 10-15 meters and a she had long glide into the wall.
Then we all kinda laughed and said we don’t know jack do we on what it takes for a world record. Btw if you’ve never seen one live it’s pretty kewl, guess that’s one scratched off the bucket list.
That is pretty fabulous for freestyle, let alone ‘fly!
She would have held her own against the free version of herself here, at her feet.
That is just spectacular – women’s swimming continues to deliver
That’s because they’re having fun. Just continue all
Thanks for posting all of these! So exciting! I am so glad that we live in an era where people film things everywhere. Can you imagine having no video footage of this?
That was also a fantastic race call by Cargill
Unreal, no one is even close. A league of her own
Where is the grandma view?
It was the last race of the night and Grandma had to go home and get ready for bed.