UVA women dominate in swimming, tennis

Gretchen Walsh (Com class of ’25) didn’t set a world record every time she jumped into the pool at the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m), but she wasn’t far off.

Walsh set 11 world records and won seven world titles on her way to being named Best Female Swimmer in the six-day event in Budapest, Hungary, in December. She swam 15 times in five individual events, with nine of them being world-record swims. She set two more world records as a member of relay teams.

In the 100-meter butterfly, Walsh became the first swimmer to set world records in the heats, semifinals and finals of the same event at a championship meet. She also won the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter IM, and she swam on the winning 4×100 freestyle and 4×100 medley relay teams. 

Walsh became one of just six American swimmers to win four or more golds at a global championship, joining icons of the sport such as Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz.

Current and former Virginia swimmers set 14 world records and won 10 titles at the meet. Kate Douglass (Col class of ’23, Grad class of ’28) set world records in the 200-meter IM and 200-meter breaststroke and swam on the record-setting 4×100 freestyle and 4×100 medley relay teams. Katie Grimes (Col class of ’29), Paige Madden (Educ class of ’21) and Alex Walsh (Col class of ’24) swam on the record-setting 4×200 freestyle relay team.

UVA also added to its total of individual NCAA champions. Women’s tennis players Elaine Chervinsky (Col class of ’25) and Melodie Collard (Educ class of ’25) won the 2024-25 NCAA Doubles Championship in November in Waco, Texas. Chervinsky and Collard beat UCLA to win the first doubles title in program history. It was the first year that the NCAA individual championships were contested in the fall instead of after the team championship in the spring.