This time of year on the college sports calendar brings things like schedule news and summer workout reports to the forefront. It is also when ESPN holds The ESPY Awards, though. And Gretchen Walsh, one of the most accomplished Virginia athletes in school history, is up for one of the big awards.
The ESPYS, short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, is an annual event created by ESPN in 1993 to recognize athletic achievements. This year’s event is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16 and will be carried live on ABC at 8 p.m.
Walsh is a nominee for the Best College Athlete - Women’s Sports Award. Morgan Brian (women’s soccer) is the only other Cavalier to ever be nominated in this category. The other 2025 nominees are Kate Faase (UNC soccer), Olivia Babcock (Pittsburgh volleyball), and JuJu Watkins (USC basketball).
Fan vote is one of the factors for selecting a winner. Fans can vote on the ESPYs here. Some in the swimming community beyond UVA are already campaigning on her behalf.
Gretchen Walsh certainly has our @ESPYS vote pic.twitter.com/qzmyHNe7WE
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) June 26, 2025
Dear Swimming Fans,
Stop what you’re doing and go vote for Gretchen 1,000 times. This is a big deal.
Sincerely,
Kyle pic.twitter.com/mlEZm2fCpe
— Kyle Sockwell (@kylesockwell) June 26, 2025
Walsh’s credentials for the award are numerous. At the time of her graduation last month, she had won 25 NCAA Championships in individual or relay events. This year alone, she claimed 7 gold medals at the NCAA Championships. She won the 100-yard freestyle in all four years of her career plus the 50 free and 100 fly as a junior and senior and the 100 back as a sophomore. She went 16 for 16 in NCAA relays, winning all 16 she competed in during her career. That followed her place as an ACC legend where she earned 23 total conference titles with 7 individual titles in four years. Note that swimmers are restricted to a certain number of individual events or the totals could be higher in both NCAA and ACC terms.
Beyond the college pool, Walsh also piled up accolades on the international level. While at UVA, she won 4 Olympic medals and set 17 world records. Just a couple of weeks before her graduation, she became the first woman ever to break the 55-second mark in the 100-meter Butterfly going 54.60 at the TYR Pro Swim Series Fort Lauderdale. She won all four of her events at that meet (50m Fly: 24.93; 50m Free: 24.33; 100m Free: 52.90) in her first post-collegiate competition.
Walsh is the two-time Honda Sport Award winner for swimming and diving, the two-time College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Swimmer of the Year, the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year, and the ACC Swimmer of the Year in 2025.
Impressive to say the least. UVA Today provided a feature on Walsh in May that shared some thoughts on where this ranks in both Virginia and swimming history. On the Virginia front, Cavalier coach Todd DeSorbo said “If there’s a Mount Rushmore of Virginia athletics, she should definitely be on it.” In terms of swimming history, NBC analyst and 3-time Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines said: ““In my opinion, she’s had the greatest two years in history. And certainly, the greatest single NCAA championship (meet) in history. You could argue about some others, but just based on the domination in the types of events she swam, I’ve never seen anything like it.” He also said she has “an opportunity to transcend the sport.”
Tune in to see if she adds an ESPY to the haul in July.
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