Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Gretchen Walsh Continues to Widen Skill Set
Todd DeSorbo’s experiment paid off.
The University of Virginia head women’s swim coach started last season looking for a backstroker for his team’s medley relays before eventually trying Gretchen Walsh, a freshman known for her sprint freestyle. She ended up excelling beyond what many would’ve expected.
Walsh split a 23.04 leading off the Cavaliers’ 200-yard medley relay during a dual meet against North Carolina State University in January, the fastest time ever swum by an American at the time. She wasn’t too surprised with the swim even though her time was a personal best by far.
“I think I did things in practice every day that showed I could do that,” Walsh said. “Todd kind of notoriously has a fast watch, but I had been going 23's in practice all year. It was just a matter of time until I was going to go something around there.
“I was really stoked for myself but also for my relay. NC State is obviously a really competitive dual meet and one we always look forward to, so it was a really good way to start off.”
Walsh, who joined the Cavaliers only expecting to swim freestyle at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championships, continued working on her underwater kicks, did backstroke on the days the Cavaliers focused on 100's of stroke in workouts, and did 200 backstroke pace sets once a week to build endurance for the 100.
The work led to Walsh splitting a 22.81 on the Cavaliers’ national championship–winning 200-yard medley relay, just 0.05 seconds off the fastest time ever, and finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke with a 49.00. In the latter event, she dropped more than two seconds from her personal best before joining the Cavaliers.
“Throughout the year, I really grew to love doing sprint backstroke,” Walsh said. “Doing underwaters became a really huge focus for me, and that really helped my backstroke swimming and kind of got me to where I am today and where I was at NCAAs.”
Her focus on backstroke didn’t hurt her specialty. She finished second in the 50-yard freestyle and won the 100-yard freestyle at NCAAs, setting personal bests in both by wide margins.
In fact, Walsh developing her backstroke might allow her to also contend to make the U.S. Olympic Team at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming in the 100-meter backstroke, though the competition figures to be tough considering the U.S.’s talent in the event.
One of those competitors will likely be North Carolina State University’s Katharine Berkoff, who Walsh beat leading off her team’s medley relay at the dual meet in January but lost to leading off her team’s medley relay and in the 100-yard backstroke at NCAA's. Berkoff holds the fastest time in the 50-yard backstroke and the American record in the 100-yard backstroke.
Although they’ve now started competing regularly against each other in backstroke, the two U.S. National Team members are close friends after having been on international teams together.
“[Competing against Berkoff so often] motivates me a lot,” Walsh said. “The fact that she’s on NC State and we’re so competitive with them and she’s such a great swimmer just highlights the fact that I need to be my best, I need to show up for every single relay. We don’t have the option to not give it our all, especially at ACCs and NCAAs because we don’t want to lose.
“I know what she’s capable of. Her being there really pushes me to be my best in every race we’ve done. At [NCAAs], we were always next to each other, and I think that that really helped me get in the zone and know the importance of every single race.”
If Walsh hopes to make the U.S. Olympic Team in the 100-meter backstroke, she needs to keep improving at swimming long course. Her biggest challenge: figuring out her pacing.
“I’m trying to find a way so that when I get to my race, my instincts kick in and know exactly how to take the race out,” Walsh said. “To be honest with you, I’m still trying to figure that all out — my opening speed and how to maintain that through the end.
“One of the things I’ve talked about with Todd that I’m really going to work on is hitting certain tempos because I think I’ll either take it out too slow, my tempo will be too slow, or I’ll take it out too fast and I’ll just be spinning. Having a really powerful stroke at the beginning with a solid tempo and then being able to maintain that throughout the whole 100 is going to help me swim it how it’s supposed to be swum.”
Walsh’s success in the 50- and 100-yard backstroke her freshman season proves that she can develop the skills necessary to quickly swim the stroke. She plans to do the 100-meter backstroke at the Phillips 66 National Championships in July to see how she performs.
“I’ve been kind of struggling with getting back in the swing of long course,” Walsh said, “so [I’m] just gonna play around with it and have fun with it and hopefully go what I know I’m capable of doing.”
The University of Virginia head women’s swim coach started last season looking for a backstroker for his team’s medley relays before eventually trying Gretchen Walsh, a freshman known for her sprint freestyle. She ended up excelling beyond what many would’ve expected.
Walsh split a 23.04 leading off the Cavaliers’ 200-yard medley relay during a dual meet against North Carolina State University in January, the fastest time ever swum by an American at the time. She wasn’t too surprised with the swim even though her time was a personal best by far.
“I think I did things in practice every day that showed I could do that,” Walsh said. “Todd kind of notoriously has a fast watch, but I had been going 23's in practice all year. It was just a matter of time until I was going to go something around there.
“I was really stoked for myself but also for my relay. NC State is obviously a really competitive dual meet and one we always look forward to, so it was a really good way to start off.”
Walsh, who joined the Cavaliers only expecting to swim freestyle at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championships, continued working on her underwater kicks, did backstroke on the days the Cavaliers focused on 100's of stroke in workouts, and did 200 backstroke pace sets once a week to build endurance for the 100.
The work led to Walsh splitting a 22.81 on the Cavaliers’ national championship–winning 200-yard medley relay, just 0.05 seconds off the fastest time ever, and finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke with a 49.00. In the latter event, she dropped more than two seconds from her personal best before joining the Cavaliers.
“Throughout the year, I really grew to love doing sprint backstroke,” Walsh said. “Doing underwaters became a really huge focus for me, and that really helped my backstroke swimming and kind of got me to where I am today and where I was at NCAAs.”
Her focus on backstroke didn’t hurt her specialty. She finished second in the 50-yard freestyle and won the 100-yard freestyle at NCAAs, setting personal bests in both by wide margins.
In fact, Walsh developing her backstroke might allow her to also contend to make the U.S. Olympic Team at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming in the 100-meter backstroke, though the competition figures to be tough considering the U.S.’s talent in the event.
One of those competitors will likely be North Carolina State University’s Katharine Berkoff, who Walsh beat leading off her team’s medley relay at the dual meet in January but lost to leading off her team’s medley relay and in the 100-yard backstroke at NCAA's. Berkoff holds the fastest time in the 50-yard backstroke and the American record in the 100-yard backstroke.
Although they’ve now started competing regularly against each other in backstroke, the two U.S. National Team members are close friends after having been on international teams together.
“[Competing against Berkoff so often] motivates me a lot,” Walsh said. “The fact that she’s on NC State and we’re so competitive with them and she’s such a great swimmer just highlights the fact that I need to be my best, I need to show up for every single relay. We don’t have the option to not give it our all, especially at ACCs and NCAAs because we don’t want to lose.
“I know what she’s capable of. Her being there really pushes me to be my best in every race we’ve done. At [NCAAs], we were always next to each other, and I think that that really helped me get in the zone and know the importance of every single race.”
If Walsh hopes to make the U.S. Olympic Team in the 100-meter backstroke, she needs to keep improving at swimming long course. Her biggest challenge: figuring out her pacing.
“I’m trying to find a way so that when I get to my race, my instincts kick in and know exactly how to take the race out,” Walsh said. “To be honest with you, I’m still trying to figure that all out — my opening speed and how to maintain that through the end.
“One of the things I’ve talked about with Todd that I’m really going to work on is hitting certain tempos because I think I’ll either take it out too slow, my tempo will be too slow, or I’ll take it out too fast and I’ll just be spinning. Having a really powerful stroke at the beginning with a solid tempo and then being able to maintain that throughout the whole 100 is going to help me swim it how it’s supposed to be swum.”
Walsh’s success in the 50- and 100-yard backstroke her freshman season proves that she can develop the skills necessary to quickly swim the stroke. She plans to do the 100-meter backstroke at the Phillips 66 National Championships in July to see how she performs.
“I’ve been kind of struggling with getting back in the swing of long course,” Walsh said, “so [I’m] just gonna play around with it and have fun with it and hopefully go what I know I’m capable of doing.”