Same pool. Same month. Another world record, this time by a margin that is becoming difficult to describe without sounding like a typo.

Gretchen Walsh swam the 100-metre butterfly in 54.33 seconds on Saturday at the Fort Lauderdale Open, breaking the world record of 54.60 she set at the same venue last May. It is the fourth time she has lowered the mark, and the third time she has done it in this particular pool.

The numbers are almost more revealing than the swim itself. Walsh now owns the 13 fastest times in the history of the event — all swum since June 2024. She is more than a second clear of Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, whose 55.48 is the second-fastest ever recorded. According to NBC Sports, that is the largest gap between first and second in any women’s or men’s 100-metre event. Not just butterfly. Any 100-metre event.

She was more than four seconds ahead of world junior record holder Claire Curzan, who took silver in 58.44.

Walsh, 23, has been chipping away at this record with unusual consistency. She first broke Sjostrom’s mark at the 2024 US Olympic Trials, lowering it from 55.48 to 55.18. Then came Fort Lauderdale last May, where she broke it twice in a single day — 55.09 in prelims, 54.60 in finals. Now, 54.33.

“Could not be more grateful for the WR, the crowd, and the pool,” Walsh wrote on Instagram afterward, joking about making the record an “annual thing.”

At this rate, it might not be a joke much longer. Swimmers are preparing for the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine this August and the European Championships in Paris. Walsh has a full summer ahead. So does the record book.

Sources