Swimmer Gretchen Walsh breaks world record twice in one day

Gretchen Walsh, one of the leading figures in American swimming, broke her own world record in the 100-meter butterfly twice this Saturday.

The feat of the youngest of the Walsh sisters was not the only one in the pool at the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale (Florida, United States).

Her compatriot Katie Ledecky, a nine-time Olympic champion, also shattered her 800m freestyle record at the closing event, which this week brought together the sport's biggest stars, including France's Léon Marchand and Canada's Summer McIntosh.

Walsh, 22, was the star of the morning, setting a new world record in the 100m butterfly series with a time of 55.09 seconds.

With this mark, he dwarfed the 55.18s he achieved last year at the US Olympic pre-qualification tournament in Indianapolis.

A few hours later, and to the astonishment of the public in this city near Miami, Walsh once again shattered his record with his victory in the final in 54.60 seconds.

These hometown successes serve as a balm after her performance at last year's Paris Olympics , where she settled for a silver medal behind her compatriot Torri Huske.

Her 23-year-old sister Alex also stood on the Olympic podium with her silver in the 200m medley at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The Tyr Pro Swim Series also saw another milestone in the extraordinary career of Katie Ledecky, the most successful Olympic athlete in history, along with Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, both with nine gold medals.

The 28-year-old American took the victory in the 800m freestyle, also setting a new world record with a time of 8 minutes and 4.12 seconds.

Ledecky herself held the record since her victory at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016 with a time of 8:04.79s.

This success caps a colossal week for the American, who was competing at the highest level for the first time since Paris.

On Wednesday, she recorded the second-best time in history in the 1,500m freestyle, a distance for which she holds the world record (15:20.48).

A day later she surpassed young Summer McIntosh by swimming the second fastest 400m freestyle of her career.

The 800m freestyle remains Ledecky's favorite event, where she holds an Olympic dominance of four consecutive golds that stretches back to London-2012, when she was just 15 years old .

She holds the top ten fastest times in history for this distance. The second-fastest swimmer is 18-year-old McIntosh, with a time of 8:09.86.

Ledecky's exceptional form once again establishes her as the swimmer to beat at the World Championships in Singapore, which will be held from July 27 to August 3.

In the men's category, Frenchman Léon Marchand, local hero of the last Games with four individual golds , finished second in the 200m medley.

Marchand, who was champion of the distance in Paris, stopped the clock at 1 minute and 57.27 seconds behind the American Shaine Casas (1:56.52), his training partner in Texas under Bob Bowman.

The Frenchman, beaten by Casas in the freestyle leg, returned to competition this week in Florida after a four-month hiatus.