The Walsh Sisters: Managing Celebrity and Olympic Expectations

by Claudia Gohn, SwimSwam Magazine feature contributor

Alex and Gretchen Walsh just punched their tickets to Paris after the long and emotional Olympic Trials meet in June. Gretchen kicked off the meet with a bang, ripping a new world record in the 100 fly with a scorching 55.18. Gretchen went on to touch third in the 100 free that landed her a spot on the 4×100 free relay, and then placed second in the 50 free capturing another individual event spot for Paris. The road for Alex was a little longer, after just missing out on spots in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events, she secured her spot on the Olympic team with a 2:07.86 in the 200 IM.

Alex and Gretchen will join their teammates Kate Douglass and Emma Weber, as well their college swim coach Todd DeSorbo in Paris. After the impressive swims the two had in Indianapolis, many favorite them to podium at the Olympics come later this summer. But in the meantime, they’ll be balancing their preparation in the pool with the responsibilities that come with being in the public eye.

University of Virginia swimmers Alex and Gretchen come across as very calm and content when talking about their performance in San Antonio — but their anticipated performance in the upcoming months is far from ordinary. After a fourth national title for UVA and five individual NCAA records held in the Walsh name by the end of the 2023-2024 collegiate season, Alex and Gretchen have etched their names in NCAA swimming history. Breaking national records, partnering with popular brands, collaborating to make a swimwear line — rarely do two sisters get to do all of these together. But for Alex and Gretchen, these are just a few ticks on the long list of accolades they’ve collected over the past few years. With their increasing popularity both inside and outside of the swimming world now, the two feel the rising pressure and excitement as they head into the Olympic summer.

On their social media, between the posts of them smiling with trophies and medals, you’ll find posts of Alex and Gretchen holding energy drinks and posing in new swimsuits. Thanks to the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rule in the NCAA, the Walsh sisters are able to have commercial partnerships while they’re still Hoos. Their first brand collaboration was in the fall of 2022 with Sporti — only a year after the NIL rule was passed — and made history as the first college swimming athletes to partner with a nationally recognized swimwear company.

More than a year and a half later, they launched their third swimwear line with Sporti at SwimOutlet, which is titled the Star-Spangled Summer Collection. This comes after two other very popular collections that have garnered attention and popularity among the swimming community. But the company partnerships don’t end there. Gretchen and Alex have recently also partnered with Celsius — a trendy, sweet energy drink popular among young people, both athletes and non-athletes alike.

This has been a great opportunity for them to not only profit off their success but to also form connections. “Me and Alex have been really lucky just with the people we are sponsored by,” Gretchen says. “Our first joint one was SwimOutlet, and they have a group there that is just so supportive — like overwhelmingly kind and fun people. So, I think that that’s been something that I’ve been really grateful for is just making those relationships.”

Gretchen and Alex also scored a sponsorship deal with Arena, joining their long-time UVA teammate Kate Douglass, as well as other top-performing athletes like Emma Weyant and Simone Manuel who will also compete in Paris. Alex’s excitement shows when talking about the extra support with the Olympics coming up — that it is a cool feeling.

But Alex also added that these brand deals come with a slight additional pressure to perform. “It definitely is an honor when brands reach out and they say they wanna partner with you. I think that gives us a lot of confidence because we feel like people other than just ourselves, our coaches, and our team have a lot of faith in us to perform really well,” she says. “It’s definitely a privilege. Obviously, it comes with the pressure to perform, but I think that we’ve handled that really well.”

But even though there’s some pressure, DeSorbo isn’t worried about how this affects them. He says they still have a head on their shoulders and are focused on their performance. “It doesn’t really matter what anybody else thinks,” DeSorbo says. “At the end of the day, you just have to come in every day and practice and work hard and do the things and continue to do the things that you’ve been doing that have gotten you to this level. And things will play out and work out the way they’re supposed to.”

With the sisters’ performance at NCAAs and collection of various commercial partnerships, the Walsh sisters are experiencing heightened popularity, especially among the swimming world. Of course, they’ve been a well-known duo for a few years now — but particularly with the excitement of being in an Olympic year, their popularity is soaring. Some of this new-found fame actually comes as a shock, they say. Gretchen says the new stardom feels surreal, especially after the Pro Swim Series meet in San Antonio when she met wave after wave of fans.

“There [were] a lot of swim fans there, and they would line up outside of the pool by the warm down area where everyone would be walking by, and they would always be like come over here, yelling my name,” she laughs. “And I would go up and I would be there for 10 minutes and some of these girls would literally be like, ‘This girl almost died. Like, she fainted.’ I was like, what?”

The ability to accomplish all of this together is at the core of Alex and Gretchen’s performance. They often look at each other and smile or laugh — it’s clear that at the heart of their accomplishments is their friendship and sisterhood.

Of course, each of them went into the summer wanting to be on the Olympic team. But moreso, their true goal was for the both of them to go together and be teammates, Alex said before Trials. “If we make the Olympics together — that has been our goal to do it together for as long as we’ve been swimming at a really high level.”

Along with most of the swimming audience, Gretchen and Alex’s coach, 2024 Olympic women’s swim team coach DeSorbo, was confident in their ability to make it when speaking with him before Trials. “I think they’re in a really good place, and I’m pretty excited to see what they do at trials because I definitely think they’re both capable of doing some pretty special things.”

Entering July, we are mere weeks out from the Olympics, where Gretchen and Alex will go up against the highest performing swimmers in the world. There’s so much going on for the two budding celebrity athletes, but the focus is always on the pool. And with enough luck and work, they’ll be on the podium in Paris.

“[I’m] just trying to go in and be very ambitious but also very grateful because I respect the sport a lot,” Alex says. “And so I feel like if I go in with that kind of mindset, and also the drive to accomplish my goals, then I feel like that’s when I race the best.”