Gretchen Walsh breaks women's 50m freestyle world record again

American swimmer Gretchen Walsh set a new world record in the women's 50m freestyle at the Sette Colli meeting in Rome on Sunday, clocking 23.55 seconds. She beat the previous mark of 23.59 set just nine days earlier by her training partner Kate Douglass on June 19. Both athletes train together at the University of Virginia.

Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom, who held the world record before Douglass, finished second in the race at 23.86 seconds.

Walsh, 23, also holds the world records in the 50m freestyle short-course and the 100m butterfly long-course. At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, she won two relay gold medals and two silver medals.