By Barry Revzin on SwimSwam
Gretchen Walsh’s storied career at the University of Virginia has come to an end. She is easily one of the all-time greatest college swimmers. But I’m not here to try to compare her to the other greats. Instead, I wanted to take a moment to attempt to visualize her dominance. I’ve written many pieces in the past that try to throw some numbers around to show how impressive some swim or series of swims are. But even for me, numbers are just numbers. Let’s take a look at some charts instead!
I’ll go through the three individual titles she won this year, as well as a bonus fourth just for fun.
50 Free
Here is a chart showing every swim in the 50 free that was under 21.74 — of which there have been 520 in history. The x-axis is time. The y-axis has no meaning, it’s just there to separate out multiple swims with the same time.
When we look at top performances, we usually only look at the top 10 or top 25. But I thought it would be more interesting to go back to a full 500. Why? I think it helps to see just how much of an outlier Gretchen Walsh is.
There have only been 30 sub-21s swims in history. 21 of those were Gretchen. Meanwhile, you can see all the 21.4s and 21.5s and 21.6s. Those are still NCAA “A” final-worthy swims! But still very, very far back.
100 Fly
As one-sided as the 50 free looks, the 100 fly is something else entirely:
I mean. What can you even say about this? There have still only been 94 sub-50s swims in the history of the women’s 100 fly. Breaking that barrier is still a very elite swim. 50.01 was still 4th at this year’s meet. And yet, Gretchen Walsh has is now more than *three seconds* under that barrier, a full 1.49s ahead of the second-fastest woman ever.
100 Free
The 100 free isn’t quite as dominant for her as the 100 fly, but at this point, it can feel like splitting hairs:
There have been only four women that have broken 46 (with Torri Huske knocking at the door at 46.01). Erika Connolly and Kate Douglass have done it once each, Simone Manuel was the first and did it twice, and Gretchen Walsh has done it 9 times. Gretchen has been 45.5 or better six times, the only one to do it.
4×100 Medley Relay
Now this year, Gretchen Walsh did not swim a 100 back at NCAAs. And she did not swim a 100 breast at NCAAs either (not that anybody expected her too). But she did surprise us earlier this season with a *very* fast time in that event. So that begs the obvious question: what would a 4xGretchen medley relay look like — given that she has the fastest time ever in three of the four strokes? And, importantly, how does that compare to everyone else?
This is a difficult question to get reliable data for, but as best as I’ve been able to ascertain, the top 20 looks something like this:
Rank Name Fly Back Breast Free Total 1 Gretchen Walsh 46.97 48.10 56.86 44.71 3:16.64 2 Kate Douglass 48.46 50.47 58.14 45.86 3:22.93 3 Alex Walsh 50.00 50.88 56.49 48.56 3:25.93 4 Natalie Coughlin 50.01 49.97 1:00.29 46.84 3:27.11 5 Torri Huske 48.52 52.45 1:00.74 46.01 3:27.72 6 Maggie MacNeil 48.51 49.76 1:04.27 46.02 3:28.56 7 Isabel Ivey 50.60 50.40 1:00.99 46.61 3:28.60 8 Kathleen Baker 51.85 49.80 59.37 48.20 3:29.22 9 Beata Nelson 50.65 49.18 1:03.62 47.51 3:30.96 10 Abbey Weitzeil 52.71 51.66 1:00.43 46.29 3:31.09 11 Teagan O’Dell 51.99 50.70 1:00.68 47.74 3:31.11 12 Katharine Berkoff 53.81 48.55 1:02.72 46.23 3:31.31 13 Phoebe Bacon 51.75 50.00 1:00.39 49.28 3:31.42 14 Bella Sims 51.52 48.97 1:04.12 47.01 3:31.62 15 Summer McIntosh 51.10 51.35 1:01.40 47.88 3:31.73 16 Charlotte Crush 50.00 49.46 1:04.50 47.85 3:31.81 17 Louise Hansson 49.26 50.74 1:05.15 47.03 3:32.18 18 Josephine Fuller 51.51 50.05 1:01.72 49.16 3:32.44 19 Isabelle Stadden 52.11 50.26 1:01.35 48.87 3:32.59 20 Calypso Sheridan 52.10 51.31 1:00.00 49.25 3:32.66Gretchen Walsh is a full SIX seconds ahead of Kate Douglass, who is another full three seconds ahead of Alex Walsh. And then have to go another full second back to get to the first non-Virginia swimmer, Natalie Coughlin.
Notably, Virginia’s record in the 4×100 medley relay itself (on which Gretchen could only swim one leg) is 3:19.58.
While I’m on this list, there’s a few interesting tidbits to throw out. Now, apparently most swimmers do not prioritize making it onto this list. This was a shock to me as well. Let Bella sprint breaststroke! So, for instance, Claire Curzan would be 4th if we just considered fly (49.0), back (49.1), and free (46.7) — but her best time in the 100 breast is apparently just 1:12.07, which hurts her in the overall standings. But even a 1:05.07 would get her to a 3:29.04 which easily makes the top 20. Similarly, Regan Smith is 9th on the fly (49.8)/back (49.1)/free (48.0) list, with just a 1:10.27 for the breaststroke. Jasmine Nocentini is likewise 4th on the list if we only consider back (53.6), breast (56.0), and free (46.7) — but has no recorded time in the 100 fly that I can find. A 55.0 gets her to 3:31.45.
Conclusion
Gretchen Walsh has been about as good over these last few years as it is possible to conceive of somebody being in this sport. While it’s tempting to try to compare her to Coughlin or Caeleb Dressel or Leon Marchand — and boy is it tempting — I wanted to instead sit back and bask in her glory. We don’t know when we’ll see another Gretchen Walsh, so let’s enjoy the time we had.
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