Cavaliers Now

Virginia Swimmers Win 11 Medals, Five Golds at 2024 Paris Olympics

Matt Newton

Gretchen Walsh won two gold medals and two silver medals in her Olympic debut in Paris.
Gretchen Walsh won two gold medals and two silver medals in her Olympic debut in Paris. / Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Sports

The swimming competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday and the Virginia swimming program put on a show, with current or former UVA swimmers winning a combined 11 medals, including five gold medals, for Team USA. Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh, who have combined to win each of the last three CSCAA Women's Swimmer of the Year Awards and 23 NCAA event titles, both leave Paris with two gold medals and two silvers, while Paige Madden won a silver and a bronze and Emma Weber won a gold medal.

Douglass, who was making her second Olympic appearance after earning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, cemented herself as one of the top swimmers in the world with an impressive week in the pool. The highlight was her first-ever individual gold medal, as Douglass outlasted South Africa's Tatjana Smith in the 200-meter breaststroke, finishing in an American record time of 2:19.24 to become an Olympic gold medalist.

Her second gold came on the final day of competition, after Douglass had already finished all of her swims for the week. Since she swam in the prelims on Team USA's 4x100 medley relay team, Douglass and fellow Wahoo Emma Weber, who also swam in the prelims, both earned gold medals when Gretchen Walsh and company topped the field in the final.

Earlier in the week, Douglass picked up a silver medal in the 200 individual medley, the same event in which she won a bronze medal in Tokyo, and also swam as part of the 4x100 free relay team that won silver on the first night of swimming competition in Paris.

Gretchen Walsh, who was making her Olympic debut, also swam as part of that opening-night 4x100 free relay team and so earned her first Olympic medal. After setting an Olympic record in the semifinals of the 100 butterfly, Walsh came up just short to American teammate Torri Huske in the final to capture silver, her first individual Olympic medal.

Walsh earned her first gold medals on the final two days of the competition, swimming the butterfly leg of Team USA's mixed 4x100 medley relay that broke a world record and needed every bit of it to hold off China for gold. The next night, Walsh again swam the butterfly leg as part of the women's 4x100 medley relay, matching the fastest butterfly relay split ever recorded (55.03 seconds) to help Regan Smith, Lilly King, and Torri Huske demolish the previous world record in the event by nearly a full second and run away with another gold medal.

Paige Madden teamed up with Katie Ledecky and helped the legendary swimmer win her record-breaking 13th medal, capturing silver in the 4x200 free relay. Then, Madden shared the podium with Ledecky in the 800 free, lowering her personal best by more than five seconds to earn bronze, her first-ever individual Olympic medal.

Six of Virginia's medals were earned in the final two days of swimming events this past weekend, a stretch during which Team USA surged from behind to finish atop the gold medal table in the Olympic swimming competition. The United States' top swimming rival, Australia, had held the lead for most of the meet, but the Americans stormed ahead on the last day and finished up 8-7 in gold medals and 28-18 in total medals.

The efforts of these UVA swimmers as well as Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo, who served as head coach of the United States Women's Olympic Swimming Team, were a big part of Team USA's success in the pool at these Olympic Games.

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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.