Sisters Alex and Gretchen Walsh Push Each Other as Both Go for Olympic Gold

One is an imposing, athletic 6-footer, the other is a double-jointed sprinter with “uncanny flexibility.” Their personalities differ. But both swimming stars are ready for the spotlight in Paris.

Gretchen Walsh won her first Olympic medal on Saturday, a silver as part of the 4X100 free relay team. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

The ancient parenting aphorism is that you’re only as happy as your least-happy child. Given that, Glynis and Robert Walsh had quite a dilemma on their hands at U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in 2021.

Their older daughter, Alex, had made the American team in the 200-meter individual medley. Their younger daughter, Gretchen, was struggling through a disappointing meet. It was the best and worst of times, at the same time.

Staying with the girls and some extended family members in an Airbnb in Omaha, how were they supposed to act? Thrilled? Crushed? Thrilled and crushed simultaneously?

After watching her parents walking on emotional eggshells, Gretchen finally told her parents to lighten up and be happy.

“She gave us permission to celebrate Alex,” Glynis Walsh says. Amid her own heartbreak, it was a generous gesture that lifted everyone. And then the following month she felt conflicted while sitting at home in Nashville, watching Alex swim in Tokyo.

“We had a camera crew from the local news, and it was really exciting and it was kind of like a production,” she says.”In that moment I couldn't really think about myself or whatever, but I was so upset not to be there. I wanted to watch her in person, and I wanted to be there swimming.”

Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh qualified for Paris in the 200 IM at U.S. trials in June. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar/USA TODAY NETWORK

Last month at Olympic trials in Indianapolis, the roles were somewhat reversed. Gretchen, age 21, made the U.S. team on the second day of the meet, after setting a world record in the 100 butterfly. Then it took a few nerve-wracking days before Alex, age 22, joined her by making the team in the 200 IM again.

So today, the Walshes are celebrating Alex and Gretchen simultaneously. The sisters are both in Paris as U.S. Olympians. After winning a silver medal in Tokyo, Alex is again a prime medal contender in the 200 IM. And Gretchen has broken through, tapping into her prodigious talents to make the U.S. team in the 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle and 50 freestyle; she’s a major relay factor as well.

On the first day of swimming in Paris on Saturday night, Gretchen earned a silver medal as part of the 4X100 freestyle relay team, and affirmed her prowess in the 100 butterfly, setting an Olympic record with a time of 55.38.

“We always tell each other that we are stronger together,” Alex says. “And that's been a really big game-changer for me because I definitely draw a lot of my confidence from Gretchen. I would say just seeing her be poised and kind of manage this comeback that she's had after 2021, I gained a lot of confidence from that, and a lot of motivation.”

Says Gretchen: “It is a little bit of a different perspective from me as the younger sister. She is an amazing role model, but that comes with her kind of putting up a brave face. So I think sometimes as a younger sister, I don't see [Alex] struggle as much, but I feel like we support each other really, really well. Most of the time, especially now that we're quite a bit older, I definitely feel like I'm totally transparent with Alex as to how I'm feeling, and she's transparent with me as well.”

Sunday night, Gretchen will take her first shot at an individual medal in the final of the 100 fly. Her progress in that event has been breathtaking. In 2021 she finished 12th in a time of 58.46, not even making finals. Three years later she smashed the world record with a time of 55.14.

Gretchen (right) qualified for the 100 fly final on Saturday in Paris. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Gretchen heard the “bathtub swimmer” label that some hung on her a few years ago, when her performances in the long-course, 50-meter pool didn’t measure up to what she did in the short-course, 25-yard pool. (Hence the tub tag.) After setting four American short-course records during the college season and winning all seven events at NCAA championships, this summer served as the final validation that she could swim in the big pool, too.

Alex is an imposing 6-footer with plenty of athleticism, but Gretchen was always built like the ultimate swimming machine. She’s 6'3", with the requisite long limbs to move large amounts of water. But she’s also double-jointed in her arms and legs—giving her an “uncanny flexibility,” in the words of her coach at Virginia, Todd DeSorbo. That’s a huge advantage.

There are some crazy still photos of Gretchen swimming butterfly with her arms torquing at seemingly unnatural angles due to her double-jointed elbows. But the bigger advantage comes from her ability to hyperextend her knees to get greater range of kicking motion underwater.

“Her feet will travel further because her knees can bend backward,” says Russell Mark of the American Swim Coaches Association, who studies and measures stroke efficiency. “She has superior range of motion and mobility.”

Gretchen’s performance in Paris will play a significant part in whether the U.S. can top the medal table. But Alex will have a role in that as well, trying alongside Virginia teammate Kate Douglass to take down Australian Kaylee McKeown and Canadian Summer McIntosh in a loaded 200 IM.

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As much as anyone should ever plan on the moon shot of their children becoming Olympians, the Walshes could at least dream about it (times two) from a young age. Glynis Walsh had a modest swimming career at Boston College (then went on to medical school and is now an emergency-medicine physician), and she and Robert got the kids in the water early.

Although Gretchen announced after a race at age 6 that she was quitting the sport because the water was too cold, she and Alex progressed rapidly through the ranks at young ages. At one point when the girls were in grade school, Robert—who was a high-school basketball player—had them do a local tryout for a team in that sport.

“They did incredibly well,” Robert recalls. “And we walked out of the gym and I said, ‘That went great. It's one game a week and one practice. This would be so much fun.’ And they both laughed at me and they said, ‘Dad, we just did this for you. We're not going to play basketball.’”

So swimming it was. There was some sibling rivalry, but it gradually dissipated when the two gravitated to different events—Alex ending up in the longer ones, Gretchen more as a sprinter. That also made it easier for the two to attend the same college, Virginia, despite some initial misgivings from Gretchen about following in her sister’s footsteps.

Their personalities are divergent enough to be complementary. Gretchen is the more outgoing and outspoken of the two, while Alex internalizes a bit more. Douglass jokes that the two will bicker at each other in practice, but when they’re together the bond is evident.

“Gretchen is an open book,” Glynis Walsh says. “She’s aggressive. You’ll know her emotions. She is determined. Alex is more inward and she’s got a fierce fire within her, but she hides it a little bit and her sister shows it.

“Alex is so ethereal. She has a lot of wisdom. She really does. She can always see the bigger picture. Gretchen can’t always see the bigger picture, so I feel like that’s how they help each other.”