Gretchen Walsh: 5 facts about the Virginia swimmer off to her first Olympics with a new world record

For the Paris Olympics this summer, For The Win is helping you get to know some of the star Olympians competing on the world’s biggest stage. We’re highlighting 15 Team USA athletes in the 15 days leading up to the Opening Ceremony. Up last is Gretchen Walsh.

Gretchen Walsh is a name you’ll want to remember during swimming at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Although the 21-year-old from Nashville is a first-time Olympian, she’s riding a lot of momentum into Paris and has a shot at bringing home some hardware.

So before the Paris Olympics officially start, here are five things to know about Walsh.

1. Gretchen Walsh is expected to swim 4 events in Paris

At U.S. Olympic swimming trials in June, Walsh qualified for the Olympics in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. While the top-2 finishers are selected for the individual Olympic events, the top-4 finishers in the 100 freestyle make the relay team, and Walsh was third behind Kate Douglass and Tori Huske.

However, Douglass recently dropped the individual 100 freestyle, which opened the door for Walsh to add another individual event to her lineup.

While Walsh has the 15th fastest time this year in the 50 freestyle — and 10 of those times belong to world record holder Sarah Sjöström — watch out for her in the 100 butterfly.

2. Walsh enters the Paris Olympics with a new world record in the 100 butterfly

Walsh broke the 100 fly world record in the semifinals at U.S. Olympic trials in June. She posted a time of 55.18, which broke Sjöström’s 55.48 mark from 2016. She didn’t break it again when she won the final, but she came close and could lower it again at the Paris Olympics.

3. Walsh’s Olympic debut is on the heels of a stellar NCAA season for Virginia

Earlier this year, Walsh helped lead the Virginia Cavaliers to their fourth straight NCAA title and became an 18-time NCAA champion. At NCAAs in March, Walsh won the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly, and she was also on four championship-winning relay teams.

Walsh is one of at least seven current, former or future Virginia swimmers competing at the Paris Olympics, along with Cavaliers swimming head coach Todd DeSorbo, who will lead the American women at the Games.

4. Walsh is part of at least 6 sets of siblings on Team USA with her sister, Alex Walsh

While Gretchen is making her Olympics debut, her older sister, Alex Walsh is a two-time Olympian who won a silver medal in the 200-meter IM at the 2021 Tokyo Games and qualified for Paris in the same event. Three years ago, Gretchen didn’t make the team.

“She was more upset than me that I didn’t make the Olympics last time, and I think that says a lot about our relationship,” Gretchen said at trials in June. “We definitely rely on one another. We relate to each other. We support one another. At a high level, high-stakes meet that’s so stressful, it’s nice to have a sibling on the deck just there to even give you just a smile or nod that you got this.”

But they’re far from the only siblings at the Olympics. They’re not even the only ones on Team USA’s swimming roster and are joined by Alex and Aaron Shackell.

Other Team USA siblings include twins Annie and Kerry Xu (badminton), Brooke and Emma DeBerdine (field hockey), Juliette and Isabella Whittaker (track and field) and Chase and Ryder Dood (water polo), according to the USOPC.

5. Gretchen Walsh’s Paris Olympics schedule starts right away

She’ll swim in two events on the first day of swimming at the Olympics with the heats for the 100 butterfly and 4×100 freestyle relay set for Saturday, July 27 — though she might not swim the relay heats. Heats for the individual 100 free are Tuesday, July 30, and heats for the 50 free begin Saturday, August 3.