Gretchen Walsh added to her record-breaking resume by swimming the second-fastest 50m butterfly in history at the Sette Colli meet in Rome on Friday.
Walsh clocked 24.51 seconds, which was eight hundredths off Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s world record of 24.43 set in 2014.
Walsh lowered her American record of 24.66 from the 2025 U.S. Championships.
Sjostrom, coming back from childbirth last August, was second in Friday’s race in 25.05.
Walsh already owns the 14 fastest times in history in the 100m butterfly, all recorded since June 2024, when she broke Sjostrom’s world record at the Olympic Trials.
Walsh won Olympic silver in Paris in 100m fly behind countrywoman Torri Huske, then earned her first individual long-course world title in 2025 in the 50m and 100m flies.
The 50m fly makes its Olympic debut in 2028.
Walsh is preparing for this summer’s major international meet, the Pan Pacific Championships, in August in Irvine, California.
