Gretchen Walsh smashes 50m butterfly world record by .36 seconds

American swimmer Gretchen Walsh is making waves at the 2024 Short Course World Championships in Budapest. The meet kicked off on Tuesday morning, and Walsh started by smashing a 15-year-old world record.

In the fifth of six prelims for the 50m butterfly, Walsh swam a 24.02, shattering the 2009 record set by Therese Alshammar by a stunning .36 seconds.

Walsh is in lane 3 near the top of the screen. She got set at the last possible moment and got a huge jump off the blocks, taking the lead immediately and never giving it back. After the turn at 25 meters, she was far ahead of the rest of the field, which finished at least .75 seconds behind her.

Currently a student and swimmer at the University of Virginia, the 21-year-old Walsh spent a month in Paris this summer swimming for Team USA. She took home two golds, one in the 4X100m medley relay and another in the 4X100m mixed medley relay. She won silver in the 4X100m freestyle relay, and finished in second in the 100m butterfly.

Alshammar's record stood for 15 years, and for good reason: it was set in 2009 during the "shiny suit" era. "Shiny suits" refer to the full body wetsuits that reduced drag in the water, which were incredibly popular at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing but banned in 2010. Twenty-five world records fell in both men's and women's swimming at the Beijing National Aquatic Center that summer, a number of which still stand.

The 50m fly record now belongs to Walsh, who will have two more chances (provided she makes it through the semifinals) to shave even more time off her brand new record.