At the U.S. Olympic swimming trials on Saturday night, Gretchen Walsh broke the world record in the women’s 100-meter butterfly with a time of 55.18 seconds in the semifinal heat.
Walsh finished strong, beating Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom’s record of 55.48 seconds set at the 2016 Rio Olympics, even though she was over half a second slower than the world record at the halfway point.
Walsh, a 21-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, who swims for the University of Virginia, will compete in the finals on Sunday night, aiming to make her first Olympic team.
She looked at the scoreboard in disbelief, saw “WR” next to her name, and covered her mouth with her hand.