US swimmers win relay gold medals as short-course world records are broken in Budapest
Gretchen Walsh reacts after the team USA won the 4x100 meter final during the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. Credit: AP/Denes Erdos
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Multiple world records were shattered at the short-course swimming world championships in Budapest on Tuesday, including by the U.S. men’s and women’s relay teams.
Gretchen Walsh anchored the U.S. women to the gold medal and a world record in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay in a time of 3 minutes, 25.01 seconds after she broke the world record twice in the women’s 50-meter butterfly earlier in the day.
In the men’s 4X100-meter freestyle relay, the U.S. finished ahead of Italy and Poland in a new world record time of 3 minutes, 1.66 seconds.
Other world records were set by 18-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh in the women’s 400-meter freestyle, Kate Douglass of the U.S. in the women’s 200-meter medley and Switzerland’s Noe Ponti in men’s 50-meter butterfly.
The short-course championships are held in a 25-meter pool, which is half the length of an Olympic pool.
