# Gretchen Walsh becomes first woman to swim under 20 seconds in 50 free

Feb 22, 2024  
Emma Hruby

History was made on Wednesday as Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh became the first woman to go under 20 seconds in a 50 freestyle.

Walsh swam a 19.95 in the second leg of Virginia’s 200-yard freestyle relay. It’s the first time any woman has gone under 20 seconds in a 50 free.

Gretchen Walsh is the FIRST WOMAN UNDER 20 SECONDS with a 19.95 split in the second leg of the 200 Free Relay!!!

Walsh would go on to swim a 20.57 in the individual event, resetting the NCAA and US Open record that she had set earlier that morning in prelims. The junior now owns the top-three times in the event, having also tied Maggie MacNeil with the third-fastest time.

She had previously gone a 20.19 split on a relay last month, although that time was unsuited. That time marks the second-fastest relay split ever.

Before Walsh, Anna Hopkin had been the closest to a sub-20 split, going 20.27 on a relay for Arkansas in 2020. The fastest that both Abbey Weitzeil – the first woman to go sub-21 in a 50 free split – ever went was 20.44.