By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
67th SETTE COLLI TROPHY
Friday, June 26th – Sunday, June 28th Prelims at 9am local (3am ET)/A-Finals at 7pm local (1pm ET) Foro Italico, Rome, Italy Meet Central Entry List Live Results Prelims Livestream Day 1 Prelims RecapThis morning’s prelims of the Sette Colli Trophy set up a matchup in the women’s 50 butterfly that has been long awaited, and could signal a “passing of the crown” in the women’s butterfly events.
For most of the last decade, if Sarah Sjostrom got on the blocks for a 50 butterfly final, it was practically a given that she would win the event and that everyone else was simply racing for 2nd.
She is the current world record holder, and before 2025, she had won six consecutive World Championships titles in the event. Winning every World Championships from 2015 until 2024.
She first broke the world record back in 2014, swimming 24.43 to absolutely shatter Therese Alshammar‘s time of 25.07 from the 2009 World Championships. Nobody else has been within two tenths of that time since she set it.
When she won her 6th World title in 24.63 at the Doha Worlds in 2024, the 3rd fastest performance in history, she held the top 24 times ever in the event as the only woman who had ever been under 25 seconds, a feat she accomplished 20 times before February of 2024.
Today, that top-25 list looks different.
The tides in women’s international butterfly races started turning in June of 2023 when young American Gretchen Walsh made her first senior international team for the 2023 World Championships. At the United States Nationals in June of 2023, Walsh put up a massive performance in the women’s 50 butterfly. She stopped the clock in 25.11, breaking the American record in the event and dropping eight tenths from her previous best of 25.97 and tying for the 3rd fastest performer in history.
The following month, Walsh won the bronze medal in the 50 fly at Worlds, swimming 25.46 to finish seven tenths behind Sjostrom’s gold medal time of 24.77. China’s Zhang Yufei came in between the two, becoming the 3rd fastest performer in history with her 25.05.
This was the last time Sjostrom and Walsh met in a butterfly race.
In June of 2024, Walsh had a major performance in the women’s 100 butterfly, swimming 55.18 at the United States Trials to take three tenths off Sjostrom’s 2016 world record time of 55.48.
There were no 50s of stroke at the Olympic Games, but Walsh went on to have an exceptional meet at the 2024 SC World Championships, setting the world record in the SCM 50 fly, which she has since lowered a few times as the only woman to ever swim under 24 seconds.
At the beginning of 2025, Sjostrom announced she would not be going for the seven-peat in the 50 fly because she was taking the year off to have a baby, a boy who was born last August. With Sjostrom out of the picture, Walsh was the clear favorite to win.
In May of 2025, Walsh became the 2nd person to ever break 25 seconds in the long course 50 fly, swimming 24.93 at the Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale to break her own American record. She lowered that time further at the USA Swimming Nationals in June, stopping the clock in 24.66 to swim the 4th fastest time in history.
At the 2025 World Championships, Walsh picked up gold medals in both the 50 and 100 fly, swimming 24.83 in the 50 fly to become the first non-Sjostrom event winner since 2015.
Now, Walsh holds four of the top-25 performances in history including the 24.91 she swam in this morning’s prelims at the Sette Colli to earn lane four for tonight’s final. Sjostrom’s morning swim was also excellent, and currently ranks as the 4th fastest performer in the world this year, less than a tenth behind Kate Douglass‘ 2nd ranking time of 25.24, and earned her lane 5 tonight.
Walsh and Sjostrom will take the blocks in lanes right next to each other tonight, and, for the first time in more than 10 years, Sjostrom is the underdog.
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