The women's 50-meter freestyle world record changed hands again on Sunday — and stayed in the same training group. Gretchen Walsh of the United States touched in 23.55 seconds at the Sette Colli meet in Rome to claim the mark, the Associated Press reported.
A record that barely had time to settle
Walsh shaved four hundredths of a second off the 23.59 that Kate Douglass had swum in Indianapolis just nine days earlier, ESPN noted. The two are former University of Virginia teammates who still train together — and Douglass took the loss in good humor, posting a photo of Walsh online with the words "was fun while it lasted." In Rome, Sweden's Sarah Sjöström, who held the world record before Douglass, finished second in 23.86.
A sprinter on top of her sport
For Walsh, it was a milestone of a particular kind: her first individual world record in freestyle, adding to the marks she has set in the butterfly events, where she has been among the world's fastest. The 50-meter freestyle is swimming's purest sprint — a single length of the pool decided by an explosive start, flawless technique and the ability to hold top speed for barely more than 20 seconds, where hundredths of a second separate the best in the world.
What it means
The swim cements Walsh's standing as one of the dominant sprinters in the sport heading into the season's major international competition, and it underscored the depth of American sprinting, with US swimmers trading the record between themselves in the space of little over a week. For now, the fastest woman ever over 50 meters of freestyle is Gretchen Walsh — until, as the past nine days have shown, someone, perhaps even a familiar face, goes quicker still.
