NANTERRE, France — American swimmer Alex Walsh was disqualified from Saturday’s women’s 200-meter individual medley final for not completing the backstroke leg fully on her back, a World Aquatics representative confirmed to USA TODAY Sports.
“I was just really heartbroken for her,” Douglass, 22, said. “I feel like she deserved to win that medal, and she deserved to be on the podium with me. And yeah, obviously when we swim that race together, it’s fun to be on the podium together, so I was really upset for her.”
However, Douglass acknowledged she had not yet seen a replay of Walsh’s illegal turn.
In the race consisting of 50 meters of each stroke — butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle — Walsh flipped onto her stomach going into the backstroke-to-breaststroke turn, rather than finishing the leg on her back, video replay also shows.
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Walsh, a 23-year-old two-time Olympian who won the 200 IM silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, initially finished the race third to win a bronze medal before being disqualified.
Neither Walsh nor Team USA women’s head coach Todd DeSorbo were made available to the media after the race.
“We’re both upset with it; there’s no way you can’t be,” Douglass, who won a gold and two silvers at these Games, continued.
“I’m upset because I don’t know if it was the right call or not, but I can’t really speak on that. I’m not an official, but when it comes to back-to-breast turns like that, I feel like we all have our fair share of mistakes.”
McIntosh won her fourth medal and third gold at the Paris Olympics after winning golds in the 400 individual medley and 200-meter butterfly and silver in the 400-meter freestyle.
McIntosh earned the gold in an Olympic-record time of 2:06.56, out-touching Douglass, who finished with a time of 2:06.92. Australia’s Kaylee McKeown (2:08.08) was elevated to bronze after Walsh’s disqualification.
First-time Olympian Gretchen Walsh, Alex’s younger sister, said she was able to watch the 200 IM and was initially “thrilled” that her sister was back on the podium. But that excitement quickly vanished.
“I’m just devastated,” Gretchen, 21, said following a gold-medal victory in the mixed 4×100-meter medley relay. “I think that Alex deserves so much. She’s worked so hard, and I don’t really know how to put that into words. It’s really sad, but I know that she’ll be back and better than ever.”
Gretchen Walsh said she was in the warmup/warmdown pool during the 200 IM and when she learned about the DQ.
“I was just stopped in the middle of the pool, like, so upset,” Gretchen said. “I don’t really know how to describe it, but yeah, I knew that I was gonna have to move on from that quickly in the moment and give her a big hug. Tell her that I’m here for her.”
Douglass added: “There’s really nothing you can say in that moment to make it better.”
