American swimmer Torri Huske beats teammate Gretchen Walsh by just 0.04 seconds in the 100 butterfly

JANIE McCaULEY, Associated Press

8 minutes ago

Torri Huske (left) of the United States celebrates her victory in the women’s 100-meter butterfly final during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

NANTERRE, France (AP) — Torri Huske touched the wall and turned to teammate Gretchen Walsh, knowing they had both won an Olympic medal. Both Americans quickly turned their heads to check the scoreboard to see who had won gold.

Huske had her elusive Olympic title, just .04 seconds ahead of Walsh in the women’s 100-meter butterfly on Sunday night, passing the world record holder who swims to the right, coming from behind in a stunning finish.

Walsh led in the 50 meters, running a pace slower than her world record, while Huske finished in third place.

Huske overtook Walsh, something she failed to do at the Olympic qualifiers last month, touching the wall in 55.59 seconds, slightly faster than Walsh’s 55.63.

“You never know and I saw the light for the first time at the block and when I saw that, it was just really surreal, I didn’t even know how to process it,” Huske said. “It’s just really overwhelming when you’ve been dreaming about this moment for so long.”

Huske removed her glasses from her eyes and covered her mouth with her left hand as Walsh reached across the court line and congratulated her with a pat on the cap.

Zhang Yufei won bronze, her second of the Games after her Chinese team finished third in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay on Saturday. Zhang was one of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for doping ahead of the Tokyo Games three years ago.

It’s been a long time coming for Huske, a Stanford swimmer from Virginia who has improved her final 50 meters after a series of disappointing results. She narrowly missed out on a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, finishing fourth with a 55.73.

It was a great start for Huske in Paris. She won silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Saturday. Her final followed on Sunday with a convincing victory by French star Leon Marchand in the 400m medley, which set the home crowd at La Defense Arena alight.

“Honestly, I don’t remember my race that well. My first 50 felt really good and then I worked hard on my second 50, especially after last year,” Huske said. “I had a weak finish and I kind of died in my race. And also at the last Olympics I lost everything in the last 50.”

During the medal ceremony, Huske pulled Walsh off the second step and the two 21-year-olds from Virginia stood together on the podium as the national anthem was played. They then grabbed an American flag and draped it around themselves for a victory lap around the pool.

A night earlier in the semi-final, Walsh set an Olympic record of 55.38, slightly less than her world record of 55.18 set on June 14.

“It was an amazing race. I was definitely nervous beforehand, I felt like there was a lot of pressure on me because I had the world record and the Olympic record last night, and I just wanted to try and execute the race the best I could,” Walsh said. “It was definitely a fight to the finish and it was amazing to see the 1-2 there. I’m so proud of Torri, I’m proud of myself. That’s what America needed and wanted. It was a really special moment that we shared on the podium there.”

___

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games