Last Wednesday, SwimRVA was honored to host a meet and greet with Olympic swimmers Gretchen Walsh and Alex Walsh, featuring a Q&A with questions from Rapids Swim Team athletes. The event, which was free for Rapids swimmers, was an incredible opportunity for young swimmers to learn from the advice and successes of the two world class athletes, with conversations ranging from how to deal with race anxiety to best warmup songs. 

Rapids swimmer Shae asked the Walsh sisters about their favorite swim stroke, and if they suggest training all four strokes or focusing on one. “My favorite stroke right now is butterfly,” Gretchen responded to raucous applause from butterfly-enjoyers.

Reflecting on the effort to train on all strokes, Alex advised the young swimmer to put energy into many different parts of their game, saying “you never know what kind of powers you may acquire later on in your life, or what you may become passionate about.”

Junior Group swimmer Madelyn asked the Olympians about mentally preparing for a big race and how to overcome race anxiety, a sentiment that Gretchen resonated with. She responded, “We get nervous a lot, those nerves don’t necessarily go away no matter how old you are or what meet you’re competing at… the biggest thing is this kind of reassuring positive self-talk.” Gretchen went on to describe the way she has learned to speak about herself and her swims, and assured Madelyn that there are many ways to assuage those feelings.

Gretchen continued, “You have all those doubts creep in… One thing I like to do is kind of go through things I was proud of throughout the season and remind myself that I’m definitely ready to swim this.” 

Alex echoed her sister’s answer, adding, “That kind of mindset is gonna help you to know that you’re ready when you get on the blocks on race day… it’s gonna bring out the best version of yourself.”

To wrap up the Q&A, Rapids Head Coach Jonathan Kaplan asked the Walsh sisters a round of rapid fire questions sourced from many of the young athletes, and challenged the Olympians to answer all of the questions as fast as Alex Walsh’s record 200 IM swim. Over the next 2 minutes of successive questions, the swimmers expressed their love for sushi and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, named Rihanna as the best artist to get them hyped for a race, and recommended their favorite restaurants in Charlottesville. In one of the last questions, Coach Kaplan asked about the Walsh’s esteemed college swimming coach, Virginia’s Todd DeSorbo, asking what the most outrageous thing Coach DeSorbo had said or done to make the sisters go faster at practice. Gretchen and Alex looked at each other and laughed, “We can’t really say it here”, which garnered laughter from the young Rapids swimmers. 

The SwimRVA community was elated to be able to meet and learn from these two incredible athletes. Our swimmers look forward to cheering the Walsh’s on in future world-class competitions, and hope to use the sisters’ advice to follow in their footsteps to become the best athletes they can be.