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Gretchen Walsh Breaks Her Own 50 Free World Record With 22.75 in Charlottesville

Walsh lowered her short course mark from 22.83 to 22.75 at her home pool in Virginia on Friday night, hours after Kate Douglass set a US Open record in the same water.

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Gretchen Walsh Breaks Her Own 50 Free World Record With 22.75 in Charlottesville

Key points

  • CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia.
  • The swim came in the 25 metre pool at the Aquatic and Fitness Center on the University of Virginia campus, where Walsh raced in college.
  • Walsh was not the first swimmer to break a mark in that pool on Friday.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia. Gretchen Walsh broke her own short course world record in the 50 metres freestyle on Friday night, Oct. 16, 2026, swimming 22.75 seconds at the UVA Short Course Meters Worlds Prep Pro Am in Charlottesville.

The swim came in the 25 metre pool at the Aquatic and Fitness Center on the University of Virginia campus, where Walsh raced in college. It lowered her old mark of 22.83 seconds, set at the 2024 World Short Course Championships in Budapest, by eight hundredths of a second.

A record set hours after another record fell

Walsh was not the first swimmer to break a mark in that pool on Friday. Her training partner Kate Douglass swam 22.94 seconds in a morning time trial on Oct. 16, a United States Open record at the time. Walsh went faster that night and took the world record lower again.

It was the second time Walsh has set a world record in her home pool. She set the 100 metres individual medley short course record at the same centre in October 2024, two months before she broke it again in Budapest.

Later on Friday night, Walsh also won the 50 metres butterfly in 24.02 seconds. AFP reported that the time was the sixth fastest ever in the event. Claire Curzan finished second in 24.85 seconds.

She said the record surprised her

Walsh told SwimSwam on Saturday, Oct. 17, that she had not expected a world record at this meet. She said she has been training well and knew the work would pay off, but the goal is to swim faster at the World Short Course Championships in Beijing in December. Reuters reported her comments on Oct. 18.

The record adds to a long list. NBC Sports reported that Walsh has now broken an individual world record 17 times across short course and long course, a total that matches Katie Ledecky. At the 2024 short course worlds in Budapest she won seven gold medals and broke 11 world records. She also won three gold medals at the long course world championships in Singapore last year and swam on two gold medal relays for the United States at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

In long course racing, held in 50 metre pools, Walsh holds the 100 metres butterfly world record. She was also part of United States teams that set world records in the women's and mixed 4x100 metres medley relays, Reuters reported.

What comes next

Walsh and the other leading American swimmers now head to the United States trials for the Beijing meet. NBC Sports said the trials run Oct. 28 to 31 in Westmont, Illinois. The World Short Course Championships run Dec. 1 to 6 in Beijing.

Short course racing uses 25 metre pools, so swimmers turn more often and times differ from long course results. Walsh owns world records in four short course events: the 50 freestyle, the 50 butterfly, the 100 butterfly and the 100 individual medley.

Timeline

  1. Oct 16, 2026Kate Douglass swims 22.94 seconds in a morning time trial in Charlottesville, a United States Open record at the time.
  2. Oct 16, 2026Gretchen Walsh swims 22.75 seconds on Friday night to break her own short course 50 metres freestyle world record of 22.83.
  3. Oct 16, 2026Walsh also wins the 50 metres butterfly in 24.02 seconds, the sixth fastest time ever in the event.
  4. Oct 17, 2026Walsh tells SwimSwam she did not expect a world record and wants to swim faster at the world championships in Beijing in December.

Sources