The old parenting aphorism is that you’re only as happy as your happy child. Accordingly, Glynis and Robert Walsh were faced with quite the dilemma at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.

Their older daughter, Alex, had made the American team in the 200-meter individual medley, while their younger daughter, Gretchen, was competing in a disappointing meet. It was both the best and worst of times.

How were they supposed to act while staying at an Airbnb in Omaha with the girls and their extended family? Excited? Devastated? Excited and devastated at the same time?

Seeing her parents going through emotional breakdowns, Gretchen finally told her parents to relax and be happy.

“It gave us permission to celebrate Alex,” Glynis Walsh says. It was a generous gesture that brought joy to everyone amid her own heartbreak. And then, for the next month, as she sat in her Nashville home watching Alex swim in Tokyo, she felt conflicted.

“We had a camera crew from the local news and it was really exciting and kind of like a production,” she says. “I couldn’t really think about myself or anything else in that moment, but I was so sad that I wasn’t there. I wanted to watch it in person and swim there.”

The roles were somewhat reversed at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis last month. Gretchen, 21, made the U.S. team on the second day of competition after setting a world record in the 100-meter butterfly. Then it took a few nerve-wracking days for Alex, 22, to rejoin her in the 200-meter medley.

So today, the Walshes are celebrating Alex and Gretchen at the same time. Both sisters are in Paris as U.S. Olympians. After winning silver in Tokyo, Alex is again a top medal contender in the 200 medley. And Gretchen has used her extraordinary talents to make the U.S. team in the 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle and 50 freestyle; she’s also a major factor in the relay.

Gretchen proved her success by winning a silver medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay and breaking an Olympic record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 55.38 on the first day of the swimming competitions held in Paris on Saturday night.

“We always tell each other that we’re stronger together,” Alex says. “And that’s been a really big game-changer for me because I definitely get a lot of my confidence from Gretchen. When I saw her stay calm and manage this comeback that she has after 2021, I gained a lot of confidence and a lot of motivation from that.”

“It’s a little different from my perspective as a little sister,” Gretchen says. “She’s a great role model, but it comes down to putting on a little brave face. So sometimes I don’t see (Alex) struggling as much as a little sister, but I feel like we support each other really, really well. A lot of times, especially now that we’re a little bit older, I feel like I’m definitely completely transparent with how I feel with Alex, and he’s transparent with me.”

On Sunday night, Gretchen will have her first shot at an individual medal in the 100-meter butterfly final. Her progress in that event has been breathtaking. In 2021, she finished 12th in a time of 58.46, failing to even make the finals. Three years later, she broke the world record in a time of 55.14.

Gretchen got the label some people gave her a few years ago as a “bathtub swimmer” when her performance in the long-course, 50-meter pool fell short of her performance in the short-course, 25-yard pool. (Hence the bathtub label.) After breaking four American short-course records during her collegiate season and winning all seven events at the NCAA championships, this summer was the final confirmation that she could swim in the big pool, too.

Alex is a massive 6-foot-3 guy with plenty of athleticism, but Gretchen has always been built like the ultimate swimming machine. She’s 6’3” and has long limbs that can move large amounts of water. But she’s also double-jointed in her arms and legs, giving her, in the words of her Virginia coach, Todd DeSorbo, “a strange flexibility.” That’s a huge advantage.

There are some crazy photos of Gretchen swimming butterfly with her arms bent at seemingly unnatural angles due to her double-jointed elbows, but the bigger advantage comes from her ability to hyperextend her knees to achieve a greater range of kicking motion underwater.

“His feet will travel farther because his knees can bend back,” says Russell Mark of the American Swimming Coaches Association, who studies and measures stroke efficiency. “He has superior range of motion and mobility.”

Gretchen’s performance in Paris will play a big role in whether the U.S. can top the medal table, but Alex will also have a role to play as she and Virginia teammate Kate Douglass attempt to defeat Australia’s Kaylee McKeown and Canada’s Summer McIntosh in the 200 medley.

As much as everyone should dream of their child becoming an Olympic athlete, the Walshs could at least imagine it from an early age (twice). Glynis Walsh had a modest swimming career at Boston College (she then went on to medical school and is now an emergency medicine doctor), and she and Robert got the kids into the water at an early age.

Although Gretchen announced she was quitting the sport when she was 6 because the water was too cold after a race, she and Alex quickly rose through the ranks as teenagers. At one point when the girls were in elementary school, Robert, a high school basketball player, had them try out for a local team in that sport.

“They did incredibly well,” Robert recalls. “We came out of the gym and I said, ‘That went great. One game and one practice a week. That would be so much fun.’ They both laughed at me and said, ‘Dad, we did this for you. We’re not going to play basketball.'”

Swimming was just that. There was a bit of rivalry between the siblings, but it slowly faded as the two focused on different events—Alex in the longer ones, Gretchen more of a sprinter. This also made it easier for the two of them to go to the same college, Virginia, despite Gretchen’s initial reservations about following in her sister’s footsteps.

Their personalities are different enough to complement each other. Gretchen is the more outgoing and outspoken of the two, while Alex is a bit more internalized. Douglass says the two would practically bicker with each other, but when they were together, their bond was palpable.

“Gretchen is an open book,” says Glynis Walsh. “She’s aggressive. You know her emotions. She’s determined. Alex is more introverted and has a fiery fire inside her, but she hides it a little bit and her sister shows it.

“Alex is so ethereal. She has so much wisdom. She really does. She can always see the bigger picture. Gretchen can’t always see the bigger picture, so I think that’s the way they help each other.”