Cavaliers Now

Gretchen Walsh & Kate Douglass Break American Record, Win Silver in 4x100 Relay

Matt Newton

Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass earned a silver medal for Team USA in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass earned a silver medal for Team USA in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay at the 2024 Paris Olympics. / Virginia Athletics

As expected, the strong contingent of Virginia swimmers on Team USA became the first Cavaliers to earn a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass helped the United States win a silver medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay on Saturday, setting an American record in the process. Douglass swam the leadoff leg in 52.98 seconds and Walsh followed with a time of 52.55 seconds for the second leg.

Torri Huske and Simone Manuel finished the back half of the relay and touched in 3:30.20, which was good for an American record, but Australia set an Olympic record with a time of 3:28.92 and took the gold for the fourth-straight Olympics.

The medal was the first for Walsh, making her debut at the Olympics, and the second for Douglass, who took bronze in the 200 IM at the Tokyo Olympics.

Walsh got off to a strong start at her first Olympics on Saturday, breaking an Olympic record with her time of 55.38 seconds in the semifinals of the 100 butterfly. She improved the previous record, held by Sarah Sjostrom since 2016, by one tenth of a second. Sjostrom's record was the world record until last month, when Walsh swam a 55.18 in the semifinals of the U.S. Olympic Trials.

With that swim, Walsh now claims the three fastest times ever recorded in the event.

Another former Virginia swimmer, Paige Madden, qualified for the final in the 400 freestyle and placed sixth with a time of 4:02.26 on Saturday.

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.