On Tuesday, the University of Virginia swim team hosted a “Sprint Olympics”, in which swimmers swam 50s of all four strokes in individual races, and had their total times added up and ranked.
Kate Douglass, the top women’s finisher, went 22.37 on butterfly, 23.47 on backstroke, 27.33 on breaststroke, and 21.32 on freestyle for a total time of 1:34.49. The most interesting thing is that if Douglass was her own 200 medley relay without the benefit of relay exchanges, her time still would have finished third at both this year’s ACC championships and last year’s NCAA championships, showing just how good of an all-around swimmer she is.
Gretchen Walsh followed in second with a 1:35.38 total time. Most notably, Walsh went 23.04 on backstroke and 21.06 on freestyle. Her backstroke time is identical to the time she swam leading off a 200 medley relay at a dual meet in early January, which was a 50 back American record up until when she broke it with a 22.82 leadoff at ACCs. Her freestyle time is just two-hundredths off her personal best of 21.04 from ACCs, and is unofficially the seventh-fastest 50 free performance in history. Keep in mind, this is an intrasquad meet.
| UVA, NCAA Record (2022 ACC Championship) | UVA, Fastest Performers In Each Stroke (2022 UVA Sprint Olympics) | UVA, Fastest Performers In Each Stroke, No Duplicates (2022 UVA Sprint Olympics) | UVA, 2021 NCAAs | |
| 50 back | 22.82- Gretchen Walsh | 23.04- Gretchen Walsh | 23.04- Gretchen Walsh | 24.13- Caroline Gmelich |
| 50 breast | 25.77- Alexis Wenger | 26.95- Alexis Wenger | 26.95- Alexis Wenger | 26.41- Alexis Wenger |
| 50 fly | 22.68- Lexi Cuomo | 22.37- Kate Douglass | 22.37- Kate Douglass | 22.40- Lexi Cuomo |
| 50 free | 20.54- Kate Douglass | 21.06- Gretchen Walsh | 21.90- Alex Walsh | 21.13- Kate Douglass |
| Total | 1:31.81 | 1:33.42 | 1:34.26 | 1:34.10 |
Just like Douglass’s total time, the combined times for the fastest woman in each stroke with and without duplicate swimmers, all done off of flat starts, both would have been fast enough to place top 3 at this year’s ACCsand last year’s NCAA championships in the 200 medley relay. Additionally, the combined times with duplicates would have beaten UVA’s 2021 NCAAs time of 1:34.10 for second place.
Matt Brownstead was the top finisher on the men’s side, swimming 21.20 on fly, 21.89 on back, 24.83 on breast, and 19.49 on free for a combined time of 1:27.41. His 50 back swim was faster than his 22.20 backstroke leadoff in the 200 medley relay at ACCs, although it seemed like he slipped on his start at conferences. However, it was Justin Grender who had the fastest backstroke time of the field with a 21.88.
The fastest freestyle time belonged to Matt King, who swam a 19.34 that was a few tenths slower than his 19.17 individual 50 free at ACCs. Noah Nichols was the fastest on breaststroke with a 24.50.
| UVA, 2022 ACC Championships | UVA, Fastest Performers In Each Stroke (2022 UVA Sprint Olympics) | |
| 50 back | 22.20- Matt Brownstead | 21.88- Justin Grender |
| 50 breast | 23.42- Noah Nichols | 24.50- Noah Nichols |
| 50 fly | 20.43- Josh Fong | 21.20- Matt Brownstead |
| 50 free | 18.54- Matt King | 19.34- Matt King |
| Total | 1:24.59 | 1:26.92 |
Maybe most impressive for me is Douglass going 23.4 in back, her worst stroke
Yeah, obviously Gretchen’s 23.0 and 21.0 are the most objectively impressive times. But a 23.4 50 back from anyone would still probably get a headline, let alone it being her worst stroke. And then of course Alex Walsh has done fly on relays, free on relays, back on relays, might as well breast to that especially if Wenger doesn’t take a 5th year
It probably 4 cycles of backstroke. It’s all underwater. Get used to it
Very interesting. Makes you wonder if the decision to have Kate Douglass not swim the 200 IM in favor of 200 breast makes sense.
Well there’s no way they would have her swim the 200 IM and the 50 Free since those events are one right after the other. If anything, they should take her out of the 100 Fly because I just don’t see her beating Huske or MacNeil. Ellen Walshe could also pose a challenge in the Fly.
I thought back was Kate’s weak stroke. If that’s weak, geez.
Not a lot of on top of the water swimming in a 50 back short course. In a 200 IM long course, still the weak stroke.
Is this yards?
Nope, feet.
ahh now those times make sense.
This one time at band camp, joe schooling went 50.8 in a practice suit!
If you subtract three lots of 0.5 seconds for three relay take-overs on the Douglass medley relay, you get 1:32.99, which is a hair away from the old NCAA record of 1:32.93 (before Virginia demolished it a few weeks ago).
I think half a second is a pretty generous subtraction for a relay start. It’s pretty rare for a relay to have three swimmers swim 0.5 faster than their individual flat start PB.
Douglass is a pretty good relay swimmer right?
I think 0.5 is reasonable considering that. I mean, if we were talking 4 x Lezak or 4 x PVDH relays, then three lots of 0.5 would be very conservative lol
We’re these DeSorbo’s legendary hand times or even better Wyatt Collins’? Asking for a friend of course.
Were
They were touchpad times. We’ve got pictures of the scoreboard, and they’re all over social media too.
Come on. Let’s not believe everything we see posted on social media. Pictures do not make it legit. Think rolling starts, one handed turns, past 15m, and that’s not even doctoring any photos.
Sickening