Gretchen Walsh continues to maintain her record-breaking wins at the U.S. National Championships. Qualifying for her second World Championships, Walsh broke the American record for the fourth time so far this season in the 50 fly by posting a time of 24.66. Her performance helped her significantly lower her own previous record of 24.93, set at last month’s Fort Lauderdale Pro Series.

“I wanted to go for a best time; that would have meant another American record,” said Walsh as she candidly spoke about not expecting to lower the record “by that much.” She was followed by her former University of Virginia teammate Kate Douglass in 25.39.

Currently Walsh is the second-fastest swimmer in the event, following Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom. In a previous article, I wrote about how Sjostrom, a six-time consecutive world champion in the 50 fly, being absent from the 2025 season will provide an opportunity for Walsh. As the 22-year-old is getting closer to breaking Sjostrom’s 11-year-old world record of 24.43, Walsh is now also in line to upgrade her bronze medal in the fly event and claim her first individual gold medal at the World Championships in July.

Walsh has succesfully carried the momentum from the previous season. She set multiple records at the 2024 Short Course championships using her flexibility and underwater dolphin kicks to their full potential. Since last year, her performance in long-course pools has also made a significant development. Walsh is currently the fastest woman in the 100 fly in 55.09, breaking the previous world record she set at Olympic trials. Overall, she managed to set 25 individual American records last year across all courses (short-course yards, short-course meters, and long course metres.)

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Luke Hobson Becomes Second-Fastest American In 200 Fly

In the men’s 200 freestyle, Luke Hobson broke a 17-year-old. The 21-year-old became the sixth swimmer in the world to break the 1:44 barrier with a 1:43.73 finish. With this, he also broke Michael Phelps’ U.S. Open record of 1:44.10 set in the super suit era at the trials of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Texas swimmer is now the second-fastest American swimmer in the fly event after Phelps. His performance also helped him post the fifth-fastest time of all time and clock the fastest time ever in a U.S. pool.

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“1:43, that’s kind of been a goal of mine for a couple of years now,” said Hobson as he revealed his “overall goal” to break Germany’s Paul Biedermann’s supersuited world record of 1:42.00 set at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.