For Gretchen Walsh, another gold medal, another historic time at the short course swimming world championships

Swimmer Gretchen Walsh is putting the finishing touches on what has been a record-breaking 2024 in three different pool sizes.

Walsh, 21, won his second individual gold medal in as many days at the short course world championships in Budapest, winning the 100m freestyle with the second-fastest time in history.

Later Thursday, American Jack Alexy won the men’s 100 freestyle for the first individual world title of his career. The United States won the men’s and women’s 100 freestyle titles for the first time at the short course world championships.

Walsh clocked 50.31 seconds, close to the world record of 50.25 set by Australian Cate Campbell in 2017.

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“I pushed into the first 50, I went for it,” said Walsh, who was 31 hundredths under the world record at the halfway mark. “That’s kind of what I do. It hurts, but I’m really happy with this moment.

The 100m freestyle feat came a day after she won the 50m butterfly. In this event, Walsh recorded the three fastest times in history across his heats, semifinals and final on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The short course world championships are held in a 25-meter pool rather than the 50-meter pool used for the Olympics and other major international competitions.

Regardless, Walsh has excelled in all types of pools this year.

It started in 25-yard pools used for NCAA competitions. In February and March, she broke NCAA and United States records in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles, 100 backstroke, and 100 butterfly while swimming for the University of Virginia.

Then, at the June Olympic trials, she broke the world record in the 100m butterfly in a 50-meter pool. She won silver in that event in Paris in her Olympic debut behind teammate Torri Huske, along with three other relay medals.

Walsh, the youngest swimmer in the 2016 Olympic Trials at age 13, was once referred to by some as a “bathtub swimmer”, or someone who performs significantly better in 25-meter NCAA pools than in 50-meter pools.

She transcended this limiting label. Walsh’s 2024 will go down in history. Friday morning, she broke the short course world record in the 100m butterfly by 79 hundredths of a second.

“It gets tough, the pressure, but just dealing with it is definitely a skill to learn,” she said.

Walsh became the first swimmer to break the world records in a 50-meter pool and a 25-meter pool and the American record in a 25-meter pool in the same individual event in a year since Ian Crocker in 2004 (also 100 butterfly), according to USA Swimming records.

Walsh, Crocker, Rebecca Soni (2009), Kate Ziegler (2007) and Natalie Coughlin (2007) all broke individual records in the same year, or even limited themselves to the same event. It is possible that more swimmers did this because historical data is incomplete.

Ziegler deserves special mention for breaking the world records for the 1,500 meter freestyle in both pools and the American record for the equivalent 1,650 yard freestyle in 2007. The 1,500 yard freestyle is not a distance recognized for record purposes.

Also on Thursday, Canada’s Summer McIntosh won her second world title and second world record of the week, winning the 200m butterfly in 1:59.32.

The Short Course World Championships continue with more finals Friday at 11:30 a.m. ET, live Peacock.