Can You Be a Born Athlete?

WH investigates whether fitness performance just runs in your genes or if it's nurtured as you age.

- Erin Strout

The 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in June was a banger for 21-year-old Gretchen Walsh.

Not only did she qualify for her first Olympic team, but she set a world record in the 100m butterfly after clocking 55.18 seconds in the event.

But those two crowning achievements were only part of her big sports dreams. In order for Walsh to consider it a complete success, her older sister, Alex, also needed to secure her own spot on Team USA.

"I'm just thinking to myself, I need to go to Paris," Alex, 23, says, reflecting on the week that passed between Gretchen's competition at the swim trials and her own. "It definitely made me work harder because I wanted to be able to do it for her and for myself." Six days later, Alex held up her end of the deal, taking second place in the 200m individual medley to earn her second trip to the Olympics (she previously won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Games in the same event). It was a huge sigh of relief for the whole family. Gretchen went on to win two gold medals and two silver medals in Paris. Alex had a tougher time, with a disqualification for not completing the backstroke relay section fully on her back. But the sisters had achieved their ultimate goal: "We've always had this goal of going to the Olympics together," Alex says.

The Walshes were part of a unique group competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics-one of at least six sets of siblings who represented Team USA together, including 24-year-old twins Annie and Kerry Xu, who competed in women's doubles badminton, and track and field athletes Juliette and Isabella (Bella) Whittaker (20 and 22, respectively). Reaching the pinnacle of your sport is certainly an impressive feat. But getting to do it alongside your sister? Beyond special.