American swimmer Gretchen Walsh adds to her record collection at world short course championships
Second-placed Kate Douglass, left, and first-placed Gretchen Walsh, both from the United States, look at the scoreboard after the 50-meter freestyle al at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. Credit: AP/Denes Erdos
American swimmer Gretchen Walsh set her 10th world record at the world short course championships with gold in the 50-meter freestyle final before adding an 11th as part of the winning U.S. team in the women’s 4x100 medley relay on Sunday.
Walsh finished the 50 free at Budapest's Duna Arena in 22.83 seconds — .22 ahead of fellow American Kate Douglass in second.
Walsh later extended her world record total to 11 — nine individual and two in relays — when the United States, comprised of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Walsh and Douglass, won the relay in 3 minutes, 40.41 seconds. That started with Smith's backstroke lead-off leg of 54.02 seconds, also a world record.
Smith also had a world record time of 1:58:04 to win the women’s 200 backstroke final, and her compatriot Luke Hobson took gold in the men’s 200 free with 1:38.61, also a world record.
Organizers said a record total of 30 world records were set at the championships.
A world record was also set in the men’s 4x100 medley relay by Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov and Egor Kornev, competing as neutral athletes, in 3:18.68.
The 25-meter pool is half the length of an Olympic pool.
Gretchen Walsh of the United States and Switzerland's Hoe Ponti hold trophies for the best swimmers of the championship at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. Credit: AP/Denes Erdos
