The first day of American Olympic Swimming Trials, a selection event towards the Paris 2024 Games, immediately provided a great spectacle at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Two records arrived during the Italian night, the first relating to the number of spectators present (20,689, beaten the 16,000 of Rio 2016) and the second signed in the pool by a wild Gretchen Walsh.
The versatile American sprinter excelled in the semi-finals of the 100 butterfly, lowering the world record by three tenths of the Swedish Sarah Sjostrom (55.48 at the Rio 2016 Olympics) with a sensational 55.18. An amazing performance by the 21-year-old native of Nashville, author of a very fast pass (25.45, over half a second better than the WR) and a very competitive return.
In just a few hours, Walsh improved his previous personal best in this race (56.14) by almost 1″, breaking the 56 second barrier for the first time in heat with 55.94 and then finally exploding in the semi-final. Day-1 which also saw the first finals of the event take place: in the men’s 400 freestyle Olympic passes were won by Aaron Shackell (3:45.46) and Kieran Smith (3:45.76), while in the women’s category Katie Ledecky (3:58.35) and Paige Madden (4:02.08) qualified in Paris.
