OPINION:
One of the best parts of competitive swimming is the definitive nature of the results. As in any racing sport, once the clock stops for
every competitor, the fastest time wins. It’s clear-cut and leaves no room for doubt.
So when a swimmer has a meet like the University of Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh had last week at the AAC Championships, it’s easy to make the case that she is the fastest woman alive.
Ms. Walsh won each of her three individual races by a significant margin and set American records in all three events. She also swam the lead relay split in two relays, and her times would have earned first place in those individual events (and one earned her a fourth American record). Perhaps most impressive of all, in the 200-meter freestyle relay, Ms. Walsh became the first woman ever to swim a 50-yard freestyle in under 20 seconds.
One could easily argue that her performance ranks among the greatest in college history. Her name belongs in the same sentence as
Kate Douglass, Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel and the many other names that will be remembered for the mark they left on the world of college swimming.
Ms. Walsh is also another example of why it’s important to protect women’s sports and keep them separate from men’s sports. If this meet had been contested as a mixed field, Ms. Walsh would have been all but erased from the results. As dominant as her swims were at this meet, her times placed 41st, 50th and 50th in the equivalent men’s events. She would not have even made it back to finals.
Men don’t belong in women’s sports, regardless of how they “identify” or present themselves. We need more athletes like Riley Gaines who are willing to stand up, speak out and defend female athletes. And we need to celebrate the accomplishments of truly great female athletes such as Gretchen Walsh.
BRENTEN GILBERT
Gainesville, Virginia
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