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PARIS — Tori Huske edged out fellow American Gretchen Walsh to win the women’s 100-meter butterfly at the 2024 Olympics by 0.04 seconds.
Husk, the second seed, pulled off the meet’s first upset by beating Walsh, the world record holder in the event, in a time of 55.59 seconds to beat Walsh’s 55.63.
Huske, who missed out on a medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics by 0.01 seconds, produced a stunning run in the final 25 metres to beat Walsh, who had fallen off the pace in the closing stages.
And so, on the other side of that razor-thin wall between triumph and disappointment in swimming, the Arlington, Virginia, native has secured Team USA’s first individual gold medal at the 2024 Olympics.
Husk was one of the COVID Games’ potential breakout stars, a teenager who was catapulted into the spotlight as a potential medal contender in 2020 and 2021. In that same event, the 100 butterfly, she sprinted toward the wall staring down the other three swimmers, all of whom finished within 0.14 seconds of each other. The race was so close that USA Swimming tweeted its congratulations to Husk, thinking she’d won the bronze medal.
But she finished 0.14 seconds behind Canada’s Maggie McNeil, 0.09 seconds behind China’s Zhang Yufei and 0.01 seconds behind Australia’s Emma McKeown.
“I hit a wall and I had no idea what was going on,” Husk, who was 18 at the time, said that morning in Tokyo. “I didn’t really understand what was going on until I saw the scoreboard and realized it.”
And she was stunned.
But she grew up in those three years, attending Stanford University and taking a gap year before the Olympics to focus on swimming, arriving in Paris more mature and empowered by her experience in Tokyo.
“The last Olympics is really going to help me going into the next one,” Huske said last month. “The first time I competed last time, I was like, ‘Wow,’ and making the team was my goal. … Now it’s like, OK, I’ve done this. This is it. Now I can focus on the future and other goals.” [at the Olympics].”
Her goal was supposedly a gold medal, and she achieved it while surrounded by the same three swimmers who had outdone her three years earlier: Breakout star Walsh, who also forced her way into the club.
But Husk overtook them all.
Walsh had to settle for silver, but she never let the moment dwell on the disappointment. Her two U.S. teammates walked arm-in-arm from the poolside, waving to the crowd and on top of the world.
Zhang won the bronze medal (56.21).
