Torri Huske
Victoria Huske is an American competitive swimmer and the reigning Olympic champion in the 100-meter butterfly. She holds world records in two relays: the 4x100-meter medley and 4x100-meter mixed medley. She is the former American record holder in the 50- and 100-meter butterfly.
At 18, she competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay, swimming the butterfly leg of the relay in the final. At the 2022 Fina World Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Huske won three gold and three bronze medals, joining just three other American women in winning six medals at a World Championships. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Huske won three gold and two silver medals.
Early life and education
Huske is from Arlington, Virginia. Her mother, Ying, is an IT professional who was an architect in Guangzhou, China, before immigrating to the United States in 1991. Her father, Jim Huske, works as an executive coach and organizational consultant. Torri is an only child. At age six, she began swimming with the Arlington Aquatic Club. In her first two years with AAC, she wore a wet suit for her swim practice, as she was always cold in the water. She was later coached by AAC's Evan Stiles who said she was one of their most committed members and that she did not shirk arduous training exercises.Career
High school (2017–2021)
Torri attended Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, from 2017–2021. While at high school, she was coached by Torey Ortmayer Her team finished first once, second twice and third in the Virginia State High School League Class 6 High School Swimming and Diving Championships.At the VHSL State Championship Meet during her senior year Huske set the national high school record in the 200 Short Course Yards Individual Medley with a time of 1:53.73, shaving a tenth of a second from the record held by Dagney Knutson since 2009. A half-hour later, Huske reclaimed the national high school record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 49.95, taking down Claire Curzan's mark of 50.35 from 2020 and becoming the first woman to go under 50 seconds in a high school competition. She also set the 17–18 National Age Group record, breaking the 50.19 mark set by Olivia Bray in 2019.
Ultimately, she set six Virginia State records: 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 200m individual medley, and the 4x50 medley relay. She won 15 VHSL Class 6 High School State Championships.
Huske was named a 2020–2021 high school All-American swimmer by the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association in July 2021. By the end of her high school career, she had been named a 29-time NISCA All-American. In September 2021, USA Swimming named Huske as one of the recipients of Scholastic All-American honors for the 2020–2021 high school season. It was her fourth year receiving the honor.
In 2022, Torri became the youngest member ever inducted into the Yorktown High School Hall of Fame.
2019
At the 2019 US National Championships in Stanford, California, Huske broke the 38-year-old National Age Group record in the 100m butterfly for the girls 15–16 age group with a time of 57.80, 0.13 seconds faster than the previous record set by Mary Meagher in 1981.2019 World Junior Championships
In August 2019, Huske won six medals at the 2019 World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary, five of which were gold medals and one of which was a silver medal. On August 21, Huske won a gold medal in the mixed 4×100m medley relay, swimming the butterfly leg of the relay in 58.04 seconds and helping the relay finish in a new world junior record and Championships record time of 3:44.84. The next day, Huske won a silver medal in the 100m freestyle with a time of 54.54 seconds in the final that was 8-tenths of a second behind gold medalist and fellow American Gretchen Walsh. In the final of the 50-meter butterfly on August 23, Huske finished ahead of American teammate Claire Curzan, who won the bronze medal, to win the gold medal with a time of 25.70 seconds. Huske won her fourth medal of the Championships on August 24 in the 4×100m freestyle relay, splitting a 54.50 for the second leg to help the relay win the gold medal in a time of 3:37.61. On August 25, the final day of the Championships, Huske won the gold medal in the 100m butterfly with a time of 57.71 seconds, breaking her own National Age Group record in the event. For her sixth medal, Huske won a gold medal in the 4×100m medley relay, swimming the butterfly leg of the relay in 57.86 seconds and contributing to the total time of 3:59.13.The day before she turned sixteen, Huske won LC 100M Butterfly at the Toyota U.S. Open Winter National Championships in Atlanta, GA with a LCM time of 57.48.
Huske's swims throughout the 2019 year earned her the Swammy Award from SwimSwam for "Age Group Swimmer of the Year" for the girls 15–16 age group.
2020
In November 2020, the Toyota US Open National Championships meet took place in nine locations due to COVID-19 and all races were timed finals. Finishing times were compiled across all the locations and places were awarded. Huske swam at the Richmond, VA location and across all locations finished 1st in the 100m freestyle with a time of 54.04. In addition, Huske also finished 2nd in the 100m butterfly, 2nd in the 200m individual medley, 7th in the 200m butterfly, 9th in the 50m free, and 28th in the 100m backstroke.Huske committed to swim for Stanford University in June 2020 and started attending in autumn 2021, competing collegiately as part of the Stanford Cardinal.
2020 US Olympic Trials
At the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Huske swam a new Americas record, American record, US Open record, and Championships record time of 55.78 seconds in the 100m butterfly semifinals. Her new American record broke the record of 55.98 seconds set at the 2012 Summer Olympics by Dana Vollmer. The next day, June 14, Huske broke her own Americas, American, US Open, and Championships records from the day before, setting the new records in the final of the 100m butterfly at 55.66 seconds and swimming the third fastest performance in the event to date. Huske qualified for a spot on the 2020 USA Olympic Team, a noted accomplishment considering she was only able to train in a long course meters swimming pool once a week leading up to the Olympic Trials. During the meet Huske swam more races than any other women. In addition to the 100m butterfly, she also placed third in the 50m freestyle with a time of 24.46 and fourth in the 200m individual medley with a time of 2:10.38. Huske also qualified for Semi-Finals in the 100m freestyle and the 200m freestyle.Following her performances at the US Olympic Trials, national newspaper USA Today highlighted Huske as one of their "10 to watch", that is one of ten Olympians, selected from all sports, to keep an eye on during the 2020 Olympic Games.
2020 Summer Olympics
On day three of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Huske competed in the 100m butterfly final. The race would end up being the fastest 100m butterfly heat in history. Four of the eight finalists swam times which were ranked in the top ten for a female in the All-time history of the event. Huske finished that 100m butterfly heat in fourth, 1/100 of a second behind bronze medalist Emma McKeon of Australia., and just 14/100ths of a second behind Maggie Macneil who won the gold medal in 55.59.In the final of the 4×100m mixed medley relay on day eight, Huske and her finals relay teammates of Ryan Murphy, Lydia Jacoby, and Caeleb Dressel placed fifth. On the ninth and final day of competitive swimming at the Olympic Games, Huske competed in the 4×100m medley relay final for Team USA with teammates Regan Smith, Lydia Jacoby, and Abbey Weitzeil. Team USA finished second with a time of 3:51.73, just 0.13 seconds behind Australia's Olympic-record time of 3:51.60, earning Huske a silver medal.
2021
2021–2022 fall collegiate season
In mid-August 2021, Huske became the first collegiate swimmer to sign a sponsorship deal, with swimwear company TYR Sport. Huske made her collegiate debut on October 1 in a dual meet against San Jose State University, winning the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 4:51.33 and the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.58 seconds for her school, Stanford University. In the second dual meet of her career against Utah in Salt Lake City, Torri finished 2nd in the 200 butterfly to teammate Lillie Nordmann with a time of 2:02.97. Later that meet, she won both the 100 free and the 200 individual medley.On the first day, November 18, of her first collegiate invitational, the 2021 North Carolina State Fall Invitational, Huske won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:52.82, won the 50-yard freestyle in 21.70 seconds, and helped her relay finish second in the 4x50-yard freestyle relay. The next day, Huske helped her relay place second in the 4x50-yard medley relay, won the 100-yard butterfly in 50.30 seconds, and helped her relay win the 4x200-yard freestyle relay event by splitting a 1:42.59 lead-off leg. The third and final day of competition, Huske brought her tally of event wins to six and tally of first or second place finishes to eight by winning the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.39 seconds and helping win the 4x100-yard freestyle relay, splitting a 46.27 for the fourth leg of the relay.
2021 World Short Course Championships
On October 28, Huske was named to the 2021 World Short Course Championships team for the United States in four individual events, while the announcement of the team, including Huske, was ranked by Swimming World as number two for the week's "The Week That Was" honor. She entered to compete in the 100 meter freestyle, 50 meter butterfly, and 100 meter butterfly individual events.Day one of competition, December 16, Huske anchored the 4×100m freestyle relay in 53.01 seconds in the prelims heats, helping qualify the relay to the final ranked second behind the Netherlands relay team. In the final, Abbey Weitzeil substituted in for Huske and the relay won a gold medal in a time of 3:28.52 with Huske receiving a gold medal for her prelims contributions as well. The next day, Huske finished third in her heat of the prelims in the 100m freestyle with a 53.34 and qualified for the semifinals ranked eighth overall. In the same prelims session, she split a 24.23 on the anchor leg of the 4×50m mixed freestyle relay to help advance it to the final ranked fourth. For the finals relay, Kate Douglass substituted in for Huske and the relay placed fourth. Huske, qualified for the final of the 100m freestyle in the evening, swimming a 52.48 and ranking seventh overall.
The morning of day three, Huske swam in lane seven in prelims heat seven and qualified for the semifinals of the 50 meter butterfly ranking seventh with a 25.43. In the evening, she placed sixth in the final of the 100 meter freestyle in 51.93 seconds. Huske also qualified for the final of the 50 meter butterfly, tying in rank for fifth overall in the semifinals with Arina Surkova of Russia and Claire Curzan at 25.20 seconds. In the final of the 50 meter butterfly on day four Huske placed fourth, finishing less than four-tenths of a second behind bronze medalist and teammate Claire Curzan. The following morning, Huske qualified for the semifinals of the 100 meter butterfly with a 56.59 in the prelims that ranked her fourth overall. In the 4×200 metre freestyle relay, Huske led-off the relay in 1:56.41 to help qualify the relay to the final ranking second. In the evening, Huske swam a 56.13 in the semifinals of the 100 meter butterfly and qualified for the final ranking fourth. She split a 1:54.72 for the first leg of the 4×200 metre freestyle relay in the final, helping win the silver medal in a time of 7:36.53.
The final day of competition, day six, Huske helped qualify the 4×50 meter freestyle relay to the final ranking first with a split of 24.44 for the second leg of the relay in the prelims heats. In her second event of the morning, Huske split a 58.81 for the butterfly leg of the 4×100 meter medley relay, helping qualify the relay for the final ranking fourth. Huske was substituted out on the finals relay for the 4×50 meter freestyle relay in the evening and won a gold medal for her prelims contributions when the finals relay finished first. For the final of the 100 meter butterfly she swam a 55.75 and finished fourth behind teammate and bronze medalist Claire Curzan. In the final of the 4×100 meter medley relay, Claire Curzan substituted in for Huske on the butterfly leg of the relay and the relay placed fourth.