2019 EURO MEET
- January 25th-29th, 2019
- d’Coque, Luxembourg-Kirchberg
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
Swedish superstar Sarah Sjöström was announced today as a competitor for the upcoming Euro Meet in Luxembourg. The meet, set for late January, is in its 21st edition, and has been promoted as the first stop of the newly-minted LEN Swimming Cup, though it’s not quite clear what this series is going to look like (SwimSwam has requested more info.
Most recently, Sjöström tore it up at the 2018 FINA World Cup Series, winning the overall series title on the women’s side (along with a whopping $150,000 grand prize for a couple months of competition). She opted out of the 2018 SC World Championships in Hangzhou, and intended to compete at the 2018 Energy for Swim meet. That meet stirred up a ton of pushback from FINA, and eventually never came together due to failed negotiations between the would-be meet host, the Italian Swimming Federation, and FINA itself.
That left Sjöström without a big winter championship meet, though several international standouts did not see this winter as a crucial racing period with 2019 Worlds and the 2020 Tokyo Games quickly approaching and demanding preparation.
Sjöström has competed at the last two Euro Meets in Luxembourg. In 2017, she won the 50 free (24.01), 100 free (53.21), 50 back (28.66), 50 fly (25.02), and 100 fly (57.12). She swam similar times in 2018, going 24.24 in the 50 free, 53.44 in the 100 free, 28.41 in the 50 back, 25.07 in the 50 fly, and 56.77 in the 100 fly.
Hungarians Katinka Hosszu and David Verraszto along with German breaststroker Marco Koch have since been announced as headliners for the meet.