Fou rapide: ‘Crazy Fast’ UVA swimmers head to Paris

The University of Virginia women’s swim team, having monopolized the national Division I title for the past four years, will have the largest presence on the U.S. Olympic women’s team this summer.

Based on the results of June’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis, UVA will send five current or alumnae varsity swimmers to Paris, the most in school history and the most of any college women’s program this year.

Perennial swimming power Stanford University put four on the 21-member women’s squad, followed by the University of California, Berkeley, and Indiana University with three apiece, and six schools or club programs with one each.

They will all train under UVA head coach Todd DeSorbo, selected last fall to lead the U.S. Olympic women’s swim team and, more recently, as the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s Collegiate Coach of the Year.

At trials, the Virginia swimmers made the cut for a combined 11 Olympic events, a number likely to grow once all the relays are assigned. Rising fourth-year Gretchen Walsh (Com class of ’25) won Olympic spots for the 100-meter butterfly, 50-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter free relay. She’s the butterflier featured on Virginia Magazine’s “Crazy Fast” summer cover, and in fact set a world record in the 100 fly during a preliminary round at trials, on her way to winning the finals.

First-place finishes at trials automatically put swimmers on the U.S. Olympic team. Second-place finishes did too, though subject to a certain degree of discretion. Third through sixth place in individual events comes into play for relay selection. Walsh, for example, came in third in the 100-meter free to make it into the 400 free relay for Paris.

Kate Douglass (Col class of ’23, Grad class of ’28) showed off her famous versatility by earning Olympic assignments in the 100-meter free, 200-meter breaststroke and 200-meter individual medley.

Long-hauler Paige Madden (Educ class of ’21) will compete in the 400-meter free, 800-meter free and a leg of the 4×200-meter free relay in Paris. She won silver in the relay at the 2020 Tokyo Games (held in 2021), behind a Chinese team recently revealed to have tested positive for a banned substance before that race.

Creating some suspense in Indy, Alex Walsh (Col class of ’24), Gretchen’s older sister, waited until the eighth night of the nine-day competition to earn her Olympic berth, joining Douglass in qualifying in the 200 IM. Both medaled in the event in Tokyo, where Walsh took silver and Douglass bronze, a reverse of the order of their finishes in Indianapolis.

Less expected, rising third-year Emma Weber (Col class of ’26) made the Olympics with a second-place finish in the 100-meter breast. At the NCAA women’s championships in March, she finished 11th in the shorter American version of the event, four lengths in a 25-yard pool instead of two lengths of 50 meters, the Olympic standard.

A sixth UVA swimmer, rising third-year Aimee Canny (Col class of ’26), will swim in Paris for her home South African team in the 4×200 free relay.

Adding excitement for the future of UVA swimming, top prospect Thomas Heilman, a 17-year-old junior at local Western Albemarle High School, made the U.S. Olympic men’s team for the 100- and 200-meter fly. His second-place time in the 100 at trials broke Michael Phelps’ 17-18 age-group record. He took first in the 200. As previously reported, Heilman has verbally committed to come to Virginia for the fall of 2025, though that’s nonbinding under college recruiting rules.

Elsewhere in Olympic selection, Danielle Collins (Col class of ’16) and Emma Navarro (Col class of ’24) made the U.S. Olympic women’s tennis team. Defender Emily Sonnett (Col class of ’15) made the U.S. Olympic women’s soccer team, as she did in 2020. The men’s soccer team has not yet been announced.

In track and field, pole-vaulter Bridget Guy Williams (Col class of ’18, Educ class of ’19) made Team USA and shot-putter Filip Mihaljevic (Col class of ’17) made the Croatian national team.

Heidi Long (Col class of ’19) made Great Britain’s women’s rowing team.

Rising fourth-year Skylar Dahl (Col class of ’25) made the rowing squad for the Paralympics, which will take place in Paris after the Olympics.