Swimmer Gretchen Walsh won the Honda Cup, given to the nation’s top women’s college sports athlete, to cap an extraordinary last year.
Walsh was named the winner over fellow finalists Paige Bueckers (basketball, University of Connecticut) and NiJaree Canady (softball, Texas Tech).
The Collegiate Women Sports Awards board of directors chose the recipient after nearly 1,000 member schools voted to determine the finalists.
Walsh recently graduated from the University of Virginia, where she rewrote the college swimming record book.
This past March, she won three individual titles and was part of four winning relay teams at her final NCAA Championships. She broke her own NCAA and American records in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly and tied her own NCAA and American records in the 50-yard freestyle.
In all, Walsh won 25 NCAA titles at Virginia, including nine in individual events. Swimmers can participate in no more than three individual events at NCAAs each year.
Also in the past 13 months, Walsh broke the 100m butterfly world record three times, made her first Olympic team, won four medals in Paris, won seven gold medals and broke 11 world records at December’s short course worlds and made the team for this summer’s worlds in four individual events.
“It’s weird now with my personal records being the fastest of all time,” Walsh said after being named the Honda Cup winner. “It’s been totally a different mental game for myself, and I’ve had to approach the sport differently, but I really enjoy a challenge. That’s what sports are about. So I’m looking forward to breaking more world records, hopefully, and getting up on the podium at worlds because I’ve never made the top of the podium at a summer world championship, so that’s a new goal of mine.”
Caitlin Clark won the previous two Honda Cups when she played basketball at the University of Iowa. Walsh is the first swimmer to win since a stretch from 2015 to 2018 when Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel won.
