Gretchen Walsh broke her own world record in the short-course 50m freestyle, swimming two lengths of a 25-meter pool in 22.75 seconds.
Walsh, competing at her home pool at the Universiy of Viriginia, went eight hundredths faster than her previous record set at the 2024 World Short Course Championships.
Walsh broke 11 world records (nine individual) and won seven gold medals at those 2024 Worlds in Budapest.
Short-course swimming is separate from long course, which is held in 50-meter pools like at the Olympics.
In long course, Walsh is the world record holder in the 100m butterfly (with the top 18 times in history) and the second-fastest woman ever in the 50m free — after trading the world record with training partner Kate Douglass this summer — and the 50m fly.
Walsh has broken an individual world record on 17 total occasions between short course (12) and long course (five), all in the last two and a half years. That matches Katie Ledecky’s total (15 long course, two short course), granted Ledecky has rarely raced short course.
Walsh and other top U.S. swimmers are preparing for the next World Short Course Championships from Dec. 1-6 in Beijing.
The U.S. trials for the meet are Oct. 28-31 in Westmont, Illinois.
