2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
- Budapest, Hungary
- LCM (50m)
- Full Competition Schedule
- Meet Info
- Psych Sheets
- Omega Results
- Pick ’em Contest
- Event-by-Event Previews
Tonight in Budapest, 23-year-old Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom rocked a time of 55.53 in the women’s 100m butterfly to take gold in commanding fashion. The undisputed queen of this event, Sjostrom struck gold in Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games, collecting a shiny new world record of 55.48 in the process. Her time tonight was merely .05 off of that historic swim and the Swede now owns the top 11 performances of all time in the event.
Even in light of winning her 3rd consecutive world title in this event, her 4th overall, Sjostrom herself eventually sees an end to the 100 fly being a part of her ongoing program. Speaking with SportBladet, Sjostrom says, “You want a long career, so you may not be able to swim 5,000-6,000 meters per practice. Maybe in ten years, you may still me competing, but only at the shorter distances.”
Sjostrom pointed to the 50 fly and 50 free as her possible shorter events for the future, but, luckily for swim fans everywhere, that’s still a ways off. “I’m very pleased that the butterfly still feels good,” Sjostrom says of her signature stroke.
Look for Sjostrom to compete in the women’s 50 free, 50 fly and 100 free events, where she enters each as the top seed, setting up a possible 4-for-4 gold medal scenario should she put it all together in Budapest.
Shame the 50s of stroke not in Olympics.
She reminds me of Therese Alshammar. She followed the same pathway. Initially a supreme 100 meter swimmer, and eventually dropping down to just 50s and doing it with the greatest success as many times world champion and Olympic finalist. Wait! Isn’t Therese’s husband Sarah’s coach? Coincidence maybe?
It looks like they will follow a similar pathway(this is exciting as a Swede – Sarah swimming forever!), but Alshammar’s early days were actually as a backstroker(!) and once she got her mojo in the freestyle her 100m success was largely built on her 50m speed. Actually the first international medals she took were at 50m. So eventually going away from the 100m globally was loglcal(though she won a SC butterfly 100m silver medal at age 33). But long story short, she was always a sprinter. Barely has a 200m PB.
Sjostrom’s swim profile has always been about endurance up until now, which of course is why she’s kept doing the 200. This year is probably the first year where… Read more »
In 2014 twenty one years old Sarah Sjostrom swims 400free at 4:06 and never swam it again at major meets.
In two years after 1:54.08 she gave up on 200 considering it too tough.
And now when she makes 51.7 the 100 distance becomes too long.
If it was somebody else but not a world record holder in sprint Sarah Sjostrom I would think: what a lazy swimmer.
I guess if you are talented enough, you have that option! I’m sure many swimmers are envious.
I really hope she focuses on the 100free and 100fly for Tokyo. Maybe continue to focus in the 100free until Euro’s next year and try to drive the record into the 51 low’s and the 50free will follow. It will likely not take faster to hold off her challengers for this Olympiad- likely to be Comerford, Oleksiak, and the Campbells. This means that for 2019-2020, she can refocus on the 100fly. Now that we saw what she can do in the 100fly without practice, so her focus should be to try and take that event into 54’s for Rio.
If she plays her cards right, she can push both events out of reach of the current stock of sprinters.… Read more »
Really is amazing how much she has accomplished at only 23 years of age
Sjostrom and Beisel are the two current athletes where every time their age pops into an article I go to Wikipedia because it can’t *possibly* be true. They’ve both been around for so freaking long because they were so good as young teenagers.