Pan Pacs: After PB, Gretchen Walsh ‘Might Like’ 100 Free Again
It’s unusual, given Gretchen Walsh’s all-conquering abilities in the sprints, to hear the American express her shortcomings in an event.
But the 100 freestyle is that for the former Virginia superstar. Or, maybe she hopes, it was.
Walsh finished second in the 100 free at the Pan Pacific Championships Thursday night in Irvine. Her time of 52.78 was behind the 52.60 posted by Australia’s Meg Harris. And by the standards of Walsh, by which a world record is at risk seemingly anytime she steps behind the blocks, that seems pedestrian.
But not to Walsh, who was thrilled at what she counts as, “my first 100 free podium at a senior international meet.”
“This one hurt a lot, and I think I wanted to go another best time, but I was still really proud of myself for getting on the podium,” Walsh said at the Woollett Aquatics Center. “ … Very proud of how far I’ve come and everything I’ve had to overcome.”
Walsh went 52.57 in the morning, which is a best time. She entered with a best of 52.78, which she matched in the final.
The morning swim, she said, felt great. The night swim, not so much.
“I think this morning, I just was very powerful and had great easy speed,” she said. “I was just trying really hard tonight.”
The night swim, painful as it was, didn’t dim that enthusiasm. Walsh has come a long way in this event. She was eighth in the Paris Olympics in this race in a best time of 53.04. She’s just 14 months past cracking the 53-second barrier for the first time, when she went 52.90 at the Pro Swim Series in May 2025. So the frame of reference isn’t about joining the likes of Marrit Steenbergen and Walsh’s training partner Anna Moesch in the 51s yet but in trying to get more consistently in the 52 lows.
“I think this morning got me feeling like I might like this event again, just because it is a painful one, and I’ve just been through a serious roller coaster of emotions with it,” she said. “So I think I’m starting to love it again, and it’s going to take swimming it similar to what I did in the morning for sure.”
Coach Todd DeSorbo set her the goal of an opening 50 in the 100 at night that is a second over her best 50 time, so a 24.5. She was exactly 24.97 in both prelims and finals, which she sees as something to build on.
The rollercoaster is just as much physical as it is mental. Walsh is a favorite for the 400 free relay at Worlds and the Los Angeles Olympics. She was third at Olympic Trials (in 53.13), inheriting the second individual spot when Trials winner Kate Douglass dropped the event.
Walsh is a sprinter, through and through. A long-course race over 100 meters makes her consider what she has in the tank – what will be left coming home, what it will feel like and what might go wrong.
More results in the 52s are helping her trust herself more. The adjustments are small – more punch on the front end, less panic in trusting the process, more bringing her fastest swims at night and not the morning.
But after Thursday morning’s swim, Walsh is able to call herself a 52-mid 100 freestyler, which is a distinction of significance to her.
“I’m just really happy with now being able to say that I go a 52-mid,” she said. “It’s an amazing time.”
