Gretchen Walsh bettered her own 100m butterfly world record for the third time in 12 months as she clocked 54.33 seconds in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the same event where she became the first woman to breach the 55-second mark.
The reigning world champion now owns the 13 fastest times in the event’s history.
“Must be magic or something out here… let’s make this an annual thing, shall we?,” the 23-year-old posted on Instagram. Walsh, who narrowly missed out on gold in 100m butterfly to US teammate Torri Huske at the Paris Olympics, clocked 54.60 seconds last May to become the first woman to go under the 55-second mark. The swim was the second time she had set the 100m butterfly record that day.
Walsh is more than a second quicker than the next-fastest woman, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who clocked 55.48 seconds at the 2016 Olympics.
Walsh also holds short-course world records in the 50m and 100m butterfly and the 50m freestyle.
