Festivities for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games began Friday, and plenty of Cavalier swimmers have arrived in Paris to compete. After winning four consecutive national titles, it is natural that Virginia women’s swimming is well-represented at the Games — Cavaliers dominated at the Olympic Trials in June and five Virginia women will compete in 11 individual swimming events in Paris. Rounding out the contingent of Cavaliers competing in the pool is Thomas Heilman, a 2025 recruit for Virginia men’s swimming.
This summer represents the fifth consecutive Olympic Games in which Virginia has had a swimmer appear. The United States women’s team will be led by Coach Todd DeSorbo, who was an assistant coach in the 2020 Olympic Games and will be a first-time Olympic head coach for this year’s team.
Senior Gretchen Walsh will be the one to watch for Cavalier fans. This is her first appearance in an Olympic Games, but Walsh set a world record in the U.S. Olympic Trials last month when she swam the 100-meter butterfly in 55.18 seconds. Walsh finished second in the 50-meter freestyle as well, punching her ticket to Paris in that event with a time of 24.15 seconds. She will also appear in a third individual event, the 100-meter freestyle, after former Cavalier swimmer Kate Douglass ceded her spot to focus on other events. Walsh swam this event in 53.13 seconds in the Trials, giving her the ninth seed heading into the Games.
Lastly, Walsh will swim on the women's 4x100-meter relay team, with the potential for more relay appearances depending on rostering. Since 2012, Australia has been undefeated in the event at the Olympic level and are also the world record holders. For a chance at gold, the U.S. team would need a momentous effort with Walsh at the center of it.
Graduate student Alex Walsh, who already has a silver medal to her name from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, is also heading to Paris following a second-place finish in the 200-meter individual medley. This is the first time since 2004 that siblings have been on the same U.S. Olympic Swim Team, and a medal from both Walsh sisters would mark the first time two American sisters have achieved such a feat in the same Games in swimming. Team USA has two representatives in the 200-meter IM, and both are Cavaliers, as Douglass placed first in the Trials.
Douglass, an Olympic bronze medalist in 2020 and 15-time NCAA champion, also qualified to represent the U.S. in the 200-meter breaststroke. As the fastest American in the 100-meter freestyle, Douglass will likely swim the mixed medley relay and the 400-meter freestyle relay. She will prove vital to Team USA against other nations in Olympic competition.
Class of 2021 alumna Paige Madden will also represent the Cavaliers in the 400-meter freestyle, 800-meter freestyle and 4x200-meter relay events, in which she won silver in Tokyo. Madden was integral in Virginia’s rise to the forefront of the national scene but had faced uncertainty in the sport for the past two years, having failed to qualify for the past two World Championship teams. However, she burst back onto the scene this year to punch her ticket to Paris and will try to repeat her 2021 success.
Junior Emma Weber is appearing in her first Olympics after placing second in the 100-meter breaststroke at Trials with a personal-best time of 1:06.10. Weber outcompeted Tokyo gold medalist Lydia Jacoby in the event and is a surprise addition to the field.
Last but not least, representing the Virginia men’s team, is 17-year-old Thomas Heilman. The teenager is the youngest swimmer since Michael Phelps to qualify for the Olympics and will travel to Paris to compete in the 200-meter butterfly, which he won during the Trials, and the 100-meter butterfly, in which he finished second. While Heilman will not join the Cavaliers until 2025, he epitomizes how bright the future is for Virginia men’s swimming.
The upcoming Olympics will give Cavalier swimmers an opportunity to shine on the international stage. While all of the athletes competing have proven themselves against American competition, some of them — Heilman, Weber and Gretchen Walsh — are still waiting to prove themselves for the first time at the Olympic level. Meanwhile, others who have already medaled at the Olympics will be vying to recreate that success and continue etching their legacies into the swim and dive history books.
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