Gretchen Walsh makes her feelings known on how Eddie Reese Texas Showdown helped in bringing 'motivation' back

Gretchen Walsh is a competitive swimmer who has turned heads with her achievements in her short career. The three-time NCAA champion recently participated at the Eddie Reese Texas Showdown where she clinched multiple events with her notable performances.

During the Eddie Reese Texas Showdown, Walsh won the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, and 100m butterfly. Along with her individual brilliance, she also assisted in claiming a home record in the 400 medley relay.

Walsh holds multiple national records in both individual and relay competitions. She currently holds multiple individual world records as well. The star swimmer from the University of Virginia talked about her mindset in an interaction with "SwimSwam".

“It was a lot of fun. I feel like everyone kind of brought the energy; obviously, the middle session on Friday night was the best. It was a really insane crowd and the DJ was great and I was just having fun with it again and I feel like it's really hard at this point in the season when you've been training for five months straight and your body is like broken down.”

Walsh further continued,

“And I definitely have been kind of feeling just like lack of motivation in practice a little bit so I was really excited to be here and kind of regain that a little bit and I feel like it was a great way to kind of just kick off and set the tone for Championship season. I'm happy that this meet was so much fun. It made me feel like, you know, I love the sport; it reminded me what all that hard work is for so it was cool.”

The Paris Olympics 2024 was Walsh’s Olympic debut and she clinched two gold and two silver medals. At the Texas Showdown competition, Walsh also recorded the top ten swims in all three events.

Gretchen Walsh reflects on the priority of taking mental rest

Gretchen Walsh at the 2024 Summer Olympics - Day 1 - Source: Getty

Gretchen Walsh, an acclaimed swimmer, has three World Championships and six World Junior Swimming Championships medals. She also talked about the importance of taking a mental pause. The emerging swimmer appeared on the “UnfilteredWatersPodcast”, and shared her thoughts:

“Taking just like a mental break from the pool is so awesome because I don't think people realize how burnt out they are mentally. Like yes, physically you can feel that but mentally, like if you don't, if you're not checking in on yourself, you're not going to realize that you're in a bad place. You know? So, like kind of stepping away helped me see that I wasn't in a bad place necessarily, but I definitely needed to like think about like who I was.”

Gretchen Walsh is a notable talent rising from the US swimming group and has a long list of prominent records and achievements under her belt already. Walsh also broke the National Age Group record in the 50-yard freestyle event.