Olympics-Swimming-Huske beats Walsh to 100m butterfly gold in US one-two

By Alan Baldwin

PARIS (Reuters) -Torri Huske reeled in U.S. teammate and world record holder Gretchen Walsh to win the women's 100 metres butterfly gold by 0.04 of a second on an electric night in the Paris Olympic pool on Sunday.

The 2022 world champion touched out in 55.59 to secure the U.S. team's first individual swimming gold of the 2024 Games, with Walsh taking silver in 55.63 after leading at the turn on world record pace.

China's Zhang Yufei took the bronze.

The gold was just reward for Huske, who missed out on a butterfly medal in the same event in Tokyo three years ago by a mere 0.01 of a second, and she did it here with a storming finish from third to first in the closing quarter.

"My first 50 felt really good, and then I've been working on my second 50 a lot, especially after last year I had kind of a weak finish, and I kind of died in my race, and like last Olympics also, I like lost it all in the last 50," she said.

"So I really wanted to have a good, strong last 50."

Huske's win continued a sequence of the event never having had a repeat winner since it was first held in 1956. Canada's reigning champion Maggie Mac Neil finished fifth.

Walsh had set an Olympic record of 55.38 in Saturday's semi-final, a time that would have comfortably won gold on Sunday had she repeated it.

She had set the world record at the U.S. trials in Indianapolis last month.

"I think I was definitely nervous before. I feel like there was a lot of pressure on me just having gone the world record and the Olympic record last night," she said.

"I just wanted to try to execute the race as best as I could and it was definitely a fight to the finish. And seeing the one-two up there though was amazing. I'm so proud of Torri. I'm proud of myself.

"I think that was what America needed and wanted and it was a really special moment that we shared out there on the podium," said Walsh.

The pair stood on the top step of the podium together for the anthem, with Zhang -- who had expressed concern on Saturday about how her rivals saw her after a Chinese doping controversy -- joining them afterwards.

(Additional reporting by Rohith Nair, Editing by Hugh Lawson)