Gretchen Walsh

I can share some intelligence here.

I just had, I did an interview with Gretchen Walsh, and she really thinks you need to focus on that breaststroke.

[laughs]

Yeah.

Mm.

Like, how do you not? I mean, Gretchen Walsh I think won last year, right? I don't remember, but I do think that she's gonna win it.

I think it's her year this year.

All right, so predictions.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Gretchen Walsh has just dropped a bunch of fast times, and you know, she's set world records during the regular season.

Her last two world records in the 100 butterfly came in the middle of the summer in Fort Lauderdale.

And I think overall these are all long course examples, but I think in short course, and especially at the NCAA, I think we should be seeing this a lot more, and hopefully this is something that the, the emphasis of things like the College Swim League will help foster.

[laughs]

And, and Gretchen Walsh.

Uh, and Gretchen Walsh.

Yeah.

I'll say those four.

We're so wrong.

Why?

Gretchen Walsh is out.

[upbeat music] I'm Mel Stewart and this is The GMM Takeover: The Swim Sound Podcast.

Joining me today we have Gretchen Walsh coming off a seven-medal haul at the Pan Pacific Championships, her biggest medal haul of her entire career on the international stage, and probably her worst meet of the year.

She did get a PB in the 100 freestyle, which she notes she got in the prelims, so she's taking her wins where she can.

But she looks back through the lens of these seven medals through the entire year and talks us through it, talks us through these conversations she had with Todd about, "Hey, I do want the world record in the 50 fly," and what she needs to do to get that.

She talks about the 50 freestyle, where she broke the world record, and then her teammate, who she loves and respects, takes it from her, what she's emotionally going through the day of that 50 freestyle, and what she needs to do to improve, stay in her own lane, so that in the future she can be more successful across her entire schedule.

Love this conversation with Gretchen, love that she lets us into the mindset of a superstar and what it takes to be great.

Gretchen Walsh.

Gretchen, how you doing?

Yeah.

I mean, Gretchen Walsh, and she, she's 6'2".

I mean, these athletes are massive.

Yeah.

Um, if you're a member of the Rakely Technique Solutions Library, every month we do a race analysis, race stroke analysis, where we'll look at either swimmers that I'm working with, uh, young, you know, 10 and unders, 11 and unders, teenagers, uh, collegiate swimmers, professional swimmers.

And in last month's, for the month of July, we compared Kate Douglas's sprint freestyle stroke versus, uh, Gretchen Walsh's freestyle stroke.

Now, usually in a sprint freestyle, there's like three main things you like to see.

There's anchor kicks, which is there's a down kick connected to your catch and a down kick connected to your exit, um, on each side.

Uh, it's no surprise that they're training partners, uh, over at UVA.

So is Gretchen Walsh.

[chuckles]

Yep.

And we may as well start off with Kate Douglas, who on the final day stole the show with her swim in the 50 freestyle.

She broke the world record in prelims, taking it back from her teammate Gretchen Walsh.

During a pro swim series in June, she surprised basically everyone by clipping Sarah Sostrom's world record by two one hundredths of a second, then held it for something like nine days before Gretchen Walsh, her teammate, took it from her.

Now she got back in the prelims by a few more 100s, clocking a 2349.

It was a 2361 when it was Sostrom's record, so that's already how much it's fallen.

Just an absurd drop.

Dropping three tenths from prelims to finals from world record to world record is already absolutely ridiculous.

When you realize that the world record at the start of the season was 2361 and the next fastest swim behind her is Gretchen Walsh in a 2355.

[laughs]

... um, you know, Gretchen and Kate Douglas jump in the water.

But-

Yeah

in history.

Um, yeah.

So but, but yeah, again, it's like she went, um, head-to-head with, with, with Gretchen Walsh, who was certainly the USA's best and, and came out on top and, um, yeah, it was, it was pretty remarkable watching her race, so that's, that's super cool.

And again, it seems like, uh, the Rackley squad is, is, uh, is, is having a year or, or on the rise, I guess.