American Gretchen Walsh blazes to three more swimming records at short-course world c’ships

BUDAPEST – World records continued to dissolve on Dec 13 at the short-course swimming world championships as seven fell, with Gretchen Walsh claiming three of them, including two in 26 minutes.

As records tumbled to Americans in the evening session in Budapest, Hungary, Kate Douglass set her third world mark of the week and Regan Smith added one more.

In the last race of the evening, the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, the Americans won in a world record with lead-off swimmer Luke Hobson breaking his 200m individual record at Duna Arena.

Every record brought a US$25,000 (S$33,740) bonus cheque from World Aquatics.

“I love that they celebrate cool wins, records, with money incentives just because this isn’t a really high revenue-earning sport,” said Walsh.

In the morning heats, the 21-year-old American broke the world record for the women’s 100m butterfly when she clocked 53.24 seconds, smashing the previous 54.05sec mark set by Canada’s Margaret Mac Neil in 2022.

Walsh returned to the pool in the evening to trim that time to 52.87sec in the semi-finals.

In one day, she became the first woman to swim the distance in under 54 seconds, and then in under 53 seconds.

Just 26 minutes later, she was back in the pool for the final of the women’s 100m medley – an event only swum in short-course competitions. She won in a world record of 55.11sec, breaking the mark of 55.98sec she set in October.

Walsh, who won two relay golds at the 2024 Paris Olympics, got the competition off to a flying start, breaking the 50m butterfly record twice in the same day on Dec 10.

She was also part of the United States team who set a new mark in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Dec 10.

“It’s definitely payday, or rather payweek I guess. I just think this is a lot of hard work culminating into one week,” said Walsh, who added that she is still adjusting to racing in a 25m pool.

“I just try to swim the best race I can, execute it and see what the time ends up being because I can’t quite grasp what I’m doing while I’m doing a race in short course yet.”

Her sister Alex also claimed a record on Dec 12 as part of the American 4x200m freestyle relay team.

Douglass, the Olympic champion in the event, won the women’s 200m breaststroke final in 2min 12.50sec, breaking the record of 2:12.72 she set in October.

She had already set records in the 200m medley final and, alongside Gretchen as part of the American 4x100m freestyle relay team.

“I’m really glad I got this one. I’d like to keep going forward and do a lot of races!” said Douglass, who finished ahead of the second-placed Russian Evgeniia Chikunova and Alex in third.

Smith, who also collected two relay golds in Paris, won the 50m backstroke, breaking another record held by Mac Neil in 2022.

Smith won in 25.23sec to better the Canadian’s time of 25.25sec.

“That was a very pleasant surprise, that was an awesome swim!” said Smith, who won the 100m backstroke earlier in the week.

In the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, the United States won in 6:40.51, to pulverise the record of 6:44.12 set by another American quartet in 2022. Australia were second in 6:45.54, with Italy third in 6:47.51.

Hobson swam the first leg in 1:38.91 to break the individual record of 1:39.37 set by German Paul Biedermann in Berlin in 2009. AFP