Team USA swimmer Alex Walsh secured a bronze medal, then suffered heartbreak at the 2024 Paris Olympics after a devastating disqualification during the women’s 200m individual medley.
Walsh, 23, placed third in the race behind Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh and American teammate Kate Douglass, but was eventually disqualified after making an illegal flip from backstroke to breaststroke.
The medal would be the second for Walsh, who won silver in the 200m individual medley at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
“I was really heartbroken for her,” Douglass, 22, told reporters, including PEOPLE, after the race. – I feel that she deserved to be on the podium with me.
Douglass said she hasn’t had a chance to talk to Walsh yet, but that she was disturbed by the way the situation unfolded.
Alex Walsh reacts after competing in the women’s 200m individual medley final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Paris’ La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on August 3, 2024.
OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
“When it comes down to it, I feel like we have our fair share of mistakes and I don’t know, it’s upsetting,” she said.
Walsh’s sister Gretchen, who also competes for Team USA, told reporters she was watching her sibling’s race and was in the middle of warming up when she heard the news.
“They just stopped me in the middle of the pool, so upset,” said Gretchen, who ended up taking home the gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley. “I don’t know how to describe it, but yeah, I knew I had to move on quickly and give her a big hug, tell her I’m here for her and then go out there and do this in her honor.”
The gold medal for Gretchen marked her third Olympics; she already has two silver medals, in Paris, for women in the 100-meter butterfly and for women in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
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Walsh previously told PEOPLE about the bittersweet feeling of making it to Tokyo, and Gretchen didn’t, having missed out on qualifying three years ago.
“It was like a house divided: happy for me, but down for Gretchen,” she said. “My parents fought.”
Gretchen added that the two sisters are “best friends,” who support each other unconditionally despite having different personalities.
“We’re both dedicated and hardworking,” Gretchen said. “We push each other to new heights.”
Both sisters currently attend the University of Virginia, where Gretchen is majoring in finance and minoring in mathematics, and Alex is a computer science major with a minor in psychology.
“It’s great to have each other to talk to,” Alex said. “We make each other laugh a lot. So it’s nice to have someone to brighten your day.”
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Source: HIS Education