NANTERRE, France —In a battle of the fastest women’s butterfly swimmers in history, Americans Torri Huske won the Olympic gold medal in 55.59 seconds and American Gretchen Walsh won the silver in 55.63 against an incredible field Sunday night in the pool.
Huske and Walsh both won silver medals Saturday night as part of the U.S. women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.
Zhang Yufei took the bronze with a time of 56.21. Yufei, 26, the 2021 Olympic silver medalist in the 100 butterfly, is one of the 11 swimmers from China whose positive drug tests in 2021 were never revealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency or Chinese officials.
Canadian Maggie MacNeil, 24, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist in this event, finished fifth behind Germany’s Angelina Koehler.
For Huske, a 21-year-old former U.S. record holder taking a gap year from Stanford, this was a chance to perfect her performance in a race she nearly won three years ago. She ended up finishing fourth in the 100 butterfly in Tokyo after appearing to take the lead 10 meters from the finish. Huske did win a silver medal in the women’s 4×100 medley relay in 2021.
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For Walsh, a 21-year-old University of Virginia standout who broke the world record in the 100 butterfly at last month’s U.S. trials, her performance is a story of redemption after she failed to make the U.S. Olympic team three years ago.
Carson Foster took bronze in the men’s 400 individual medley just moments before the buttefly, giving Team USA its fourth, fifth and sixth swimming medals at these Games, following the gold in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay, the women’s relay silver, and Katie Ledecky’s bronze in the women’s 400 freestyle on Saturday.