(Reuters) -Gretchen Walsh improved on her own American record and became the second fastest woman to swim the 50 metre butterfly after Swede Sarah Sjostrom by clocking 24.93 seconds at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Florida on Friday.
The 31-year-old Sjostrom holds the 50m butterfly world record with a time of 24.43, set during the Swedish Championships in July 2014, and has never been beaten in the event at world championships since 2015.
However, 22-year-old Walsh has emerged as one to watch ahead of the event’s debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“I think that the second woman to ever be under 25 (seconds) is a pretty cool stat. I have definitely had my eyes set on that,” Walsh told USA swimming.
“I’m really happy with the swim. There is definitely room to get better … I love following in the footsteps of Sarah Sjostrom (in the women’s 50m butterfly), she’s such an idol to me, and it’s cool to be in the same sentence as her.”
Walsh took silver in the 100m butterfly behind fellow American Torri Huske at the Paris Games and secured team gold in the women’s and mixed 4×100m medley relays.
Sjostrom, who swept the 50m and 100m freestyle golds in Paris, is taking the season off as she awaits the birth of her first child, but is targeting a return to the pool at the LA Games.
(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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